'PureVideo' vs nvDVD 2.55 - any difference?

[dderidex]

I realize the heading is a bit misleading, since I'm not talking about a GeForce6-series card, ergo not ACTUALLY talking about 'PureVideo' - rather, I'm referring to the DVD decoder that was released with it.

I bought a rather low-end Personal Cinema set rather 'way back in the day' that had nVDVD with nVidia's DVD decoder on it (that could be updated to 2.55).

It's been working fine on all the nVidia cards I've had, including the BFG 5700 Ultra I'm using right now.

Million dollar question is, though, does this new DVD decoder 1.00.67 that was released with all the PureVideo hoopla actually offer anything new over the DVD decoder 2.55 (that I already have)?

I haven't really been able to find any information on that, since all the reviews seem to be concentrating on the GeForce 6-series cards and their 'PureVideo' features - neither relevant here.

My basic question is simply - do nVidia's DVD decoder 2.55 and nVidia's DVD decoder 1.00.67 differ substantially?

 

[R1ckCa1n]

I think they are using software (Pure Video) to fix the broken hardware video processor on the NV40.

Can't think of any other reason NV would release software that is targeted at the 6xxx series cards other than to fix broken stuff.

 

[tranCendenZ]

I think they are using software (Pure Video) to fix the broken hardware video processor on the NV40.

Can't think of any other reason NV would release software that is targeted at the 6xxx series cards other than to fix broken stuff.

lol. Reason is very simple. NVDVD was discontinued, Nvidia doesn't want to program a DVD player anymore when there are better DVD players out that do more than just play DVD. And from your statement I assume you don't know how video decoding works.

PureVideo is the launch of their new decoding codec that increases quality. While Nvidia drivers can enable hardware acceleration, Nvidia needs to release a enhanced decoding codec in order to take advantage of some of the quality increasing features of the NV4x VPU. This would be the case with any VPU, because using a standard MPEG2 decoding codec simply wouldn't look as nice as a custom one that is more feature packed (but also more demanding).

I know you love repeating how the NV40 VPU is broken, but it's not. The NV40/NV45 VPUs support MPEG2/DVD hardware acceleration in drivers and quality improvements for MPEG2/DVD/WMV through the PureVideo codec. The NV41/NV43 VPUs support MPEG2/DVD/WMV hardware accleration in drivers and quality improvements for MPEG2/DVD/WMV through the PureVideo codec. The NV44 VPU supports limited MPEG2/DVD/WMV hardware acceleration in drivers and limited quality improvents for MPEG2/DVD/WMV though the PureVideo codec. VPUs for all NV4x products are enabled, they just have different featuresets.

To the OP: PureVideo quality is superior to the now-discontinued NVDVD.

 

[Netrat33]

lol. Reason is very simple. NVDVD was discontinued, Nvidia doesn't want to program a DVD player anymore when there are better DVD players out that do more than just play DVD. And from your statement I assume you don't know how video decoding works.

PureVideo is the launch of their new decoding codec that increases quality. While Nvidia drivers can enable hardware acceleration, Nvidia needs to release a enhanced decoding codec in order to take advantage of some of the quality increasing features of the NV4x VPU. This would be the case with any VPU, because using a standard MPEG2 decoding codec simply wouldn't look as nice as a custom one that is more feature packed (but also more demanding).

I know you love repeating how the NV40 VPU is broken, but it's not. The NV40/NV45 VPUs support MPEG2/DVD hardware acceleration in drivers and quality improvements for MPEG2/DVD/WMV through the PureVideo software. The NV41/NV43 VPUs support MPEG2/DVD/WMV hardware accleration in drivers and quality improvements for MPEG2/DVD/WMV through the PureVideo software. The NV44 VPU supports limited MPEG2/DVD/WMV hardware acceleration in drivers and limited quality improvents for MPEG2/DVD/WMV though the PureVideo software. VPUs for all NV4x products are enabled, they just have different featuresets.

To the OP: PureVideo quality is superior to the now-discontinued NVDVD.

What I think he is getting confused with in what's broken is how the 6800series was supposed to have hardware encoding too.

 

[LoneWolf]

l
I know you love repeating how the NV40 VPU is broken, but it's not. The NV40/NV45 VPUs support MPEG2/DVD hardware acceleration in drivers and quality improvements for MPEG2/DVD/WMV through the PureVideo codec. The NV41/NV43 VPUs support MPEG2/DVD/WMV hardware accleration in drivers and quality improvements for MPEG2/DVD/WMV through the PureVideo codec. The NV44 VPU supports limited MPEG2/DVD/WMV hardware acceleration in drivers and limited quality improvents for MPEG2/DVD/WMV though the PureVideo codec. VPUs for all NV4x products are enabled, they just have different featuresets.

To the OP: PureVideo quality is superior to the now-discontinued NVDVD.

The PVP is broken on the NV40/NV45. The reason it is broken is because nVidia repeatedly and consistenly promised WMV9 hardware decode acceleration on these two GPU's, right up until the time Purevideo specs were released. Check Maximum PC's Watchdog section in January for this. Check multiple forums. Check nVidia's Geforce 6 series whitepapers during the first 4-6 months of the card's release, some of which were as of 12/20 still on their website (I haven't checked back since) that advertise hardware WMV acceleration for the entire Geforce 6 Series. Since there is no hardware acceleration, this feature is broken, ergo, the Video Processor on the NV40/45 is not fully functional, which means it is broken.

 

[tranCendenZ]

What I think he is getting confused with in what's broken is how the 6800series was supposed to have hardware encoding too.

And it might still have that at some point; they just finalized the decoding portion. Encoding is a much more complicated task as it requires cooperation from third parties like Adobe.

 

[tranCendenZ]

The PVP is broken on the NV40/NV45. The reason it is broken is because nVidia repeatedly and consistenly promised WMV9 hardware decode acceleration on these two GPU's, right up until the time Purevideo specs were released. Check Maximum PC's Watchdog section in January for this. Check multiple forums. Check nVidia's Geforce 6 series whitepapers during the first 4-6 months of the card's release, some of which were as of 12/20 still on their website (I haven't checked back since) that advertise hardware WMV acceleration for the entire Geforce 6 Series. Since there is no hardware acceleration, this feature is broken, ergo, the Video Processor on the NV40/45 is not fully functional, which means it is broken.

If you used this logic, then you'd also be calling the VPU implementation on the 6200 (NV44) "broken" because it cannot acclerate 1080i MPEG2/WMV nor can it do as much on the quality side compared to the implementation on the NV40/NV41/NV43/NV45; in reality, it's just not as full featured as the VPU implementation on the NV41/NV43. Same goes for NV40/NV45, not "broken," just not as full featured. Broken means something doesn't work. The VPU on the NV40/NV45 does work; in fact it is better than the VPU in the NV44. The only chips which have better implementations are NV41/NV43 because they support all PureVideo features. And if you look at Nvidia's marketing, from what I saw originally they said "GeForce 6 series," not GeForce 6800GT specifically supporting WMV hardware decode. Currently their marketing says that the GeForce 6 series can offer 16 pipelines, that doesn't mean that the GeForce 6200 is a 16 pipeline card.

Anyway this is all OT. The OP asked about NVDVD vs. Purevideo. The Purevideo codec is significantly better looking than NVDVD, and the PureVideo MPEG2/DVD/WMV quality enhancements can be seen in full force with all GeForce 6 cards except the 6200 which is much more limited quality wise.

 

[LoneWolf]

Are you saying that a Geforce 6800 isn't part of the Geforce 6 series of cards?

When someone advertises a feature to me, and then doesn't deliver on it, it is indeed broken. An item that is broken doesn't mean it doesn't work at all; if my blender works when I plug it in, but the on-off switch doesn't work and I have to unplug it from the wall to turn it off, then it's broken, right?

I don't wish to thread-hijack, but I'm calling you on this one because if it was the other way around, i.e., that nVidia promised a great video card for video encoding and decoding that also "just happened to do games" and then half of the games they promised would work didn't, I would bet you would certainly call THAT broken.

I think the .PDF below still on their website is pretty self-explanatory.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_16823.html

 

[tornadotsunamilife]

someone had to do it i guess

here are the definitions of broken/break/broke etc

choose one you like and end the argument

 

[R1ckCa1n]

lol. Reason is very simple. NVDVD was discontinued, Nvidia doesn't want to program a DVD player anymore when there are better DVD players out that do more than just play DVD. And from your statement I assume you don't know how video decoding works.

PureVideo is the launch of their new decoding codec that increases quality. While Nvidia drivers can enable hardware acceleration, Nvidia needs to release a enhanced decoding codec in order to take advantage of some of the quality increasing features of the NV4x VPU. This would be the case with any VPU, because using a standard MPEG2 decoding codec simply wouldn't look as nice as a custom one that is more feature packed (but also more demanding).

I know you love repeating how the NV40 VPU is broken, but it's not. The NV40/NV45 VPUs support MPEG2/DVD hardware acceleration in drivers and quality improvements for MPEG2/DVD/WMV through the PureVideo codec. The NV41/NV43 VPUs support MPEG2/DVD/WMV hardware accleration in drivers and quality improvements for MPEG2/DVD/WMV through the PureVideo codec. The NV44 VPU supports limited MPEG2/DVD/WMV hardware acceleration in drivers and limited quality improvents for MPEG2/DVD/WMV though the PureVideo codec. VPUs for all NV4x products are enabled, they just have different featuresets.

To the OP: PureVideo quality is superior to the now-discontinued NVDVD.

far from the truth, but nice try at covering up NV's fallen promise.

NVDVD is available as version 4 right now. I actually bought the codec for my X800 running HTPC because of it's great decoding. NV is covering up the broken hardware plain and simple.