What does Dual 1080P Decode Mean?

[bore_u2_death]

I have one simple question regarding this

I found the article that originally explained it. Dual 1080p decoding means BD-3D.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/htpc-graphics-cards_3.html#sect0

2) What does it mean in context to GPUs without HDMI 1.4a? I'm talking more specifically about the GT 240 and Radeon 5570(and all 5000 cards above it). How could any of these cards output 3D video without any HDMI 1.4a connectors?

I want to make an HTPC one day, and if I wanted 3D playback from any of the above mentioned cards, how would I do it?

 

[NoxTek]

I have two simple questions regarding this

1) What does dual 1080p video stream decoding mean?

2) What does it mean in context to GPUs without HDMI 1.4a? I'm talking more specifically about the:

NV GT240 and Radeon HD 5550 and greater.

Even if they support this capability, how could an end user make use of it?

I want to make an HTPC one day and this has been bugging me for some time. Thank you.

I'm guessing it's the ability to decode two 1080p streams in hardware simultaneously, useful for dual monitors if you want to have two 1080p videos playing at the same time. Or hell on a single monitor given a high enough resolution. I can't think of a good reason WHY you would want this, but then again I'm sure if you look hard enough someone out there not only wants it but needs it. *shrug*

I would file it under marketing fluff... something they can print on a box and slides to make the product look good. Right up there with ATI's TrueForm which, save for a very few cases, was useless.

 

[fattypants]

The most obvious application for dual 1080p decoding and HDMI 1.4a is 3D movies, which play the left frame and the right frame simultaneously.

 

[Red Falcon]

I'm guessing it's the ability to decode two 1080p streams in hardware simultaneously, useful for dual monitors if you want to have two 1080p videos playing at the same time. Or hell on a single monitor given a high enough resolution. I can't think of a good reason WHY you would want this, but then again I'm sure if you look hard enough someone out there not only wants it but needs it. *shrug*

+1

Trust me, when editing videos and viewing the playback of two similar but separate files, it's a must and really works well with modern cards and GPU decoding.

btw, hey Blue Falcon.

 

[bore_u2_death]

I updated my OP to reflect the new info I've gained and now only need to know, how could any of these GPUs output 3D? Thank you to all the people who have helped me so far, I appreciate it.

 

[Red Falcon]

You need to have a monitor and glasses that support 3D. The two separate images are fed to the monitor in such a way that your eyes can visualize it in "3D". HDMI 1.4a is just the newest spec and can handle the most data throughput, probably the amount needed to perform the two video feeds as well as HD audio and possible multi-monitor support, not to mention the high resolution of the monitor(s).

 

[Snowknight26]

Trust me, when editing videos and viewing the playback of two similar but separate files, it's a must and really works well with modern cards and GPU decoding.

The GPU wouldn't help you during editing as you'd be editing it in an intermediate lossless format.

 

[Red Falcon]

The GPU wouldn't help you during editing as you'd be editing it in an intermediate lossless format.

You are right, I should have said, while editing and after encoding the video to preview the new video against the old, you can play both at once with decoding.

 

[bore_u2_death]

You need to have a monitor and glasses that support 3D. The two separate images are fed to the monitor in such a way that your eyes can visualize it in "3D". HDMI 1.4a is just the newest spec and can handle the most data throughput, probably the amount needed to perform the two video feeds as well as HD audio and possible multi-monitor support, not to mention the high resolution of the monitor(s).

If you connected a GPU with dual 1080P decoding to a display, would dual link DVI allow you to transmit 3D to it? Assuming you had 120Hz, 3D glasses, and HDCP compliant connections and whatnot.

 

[Red Falcon]

If you connected a GPU with dual 1080P decoding to a display, would dual link DVI allow you to transmit 3D to it? Assuming you had 120Hz, 3D glasses, and HDCP compliant connections and whatnot.

Yes, but the display has to be a 3D display. I'm pretty sure it won't work properly with a normal monitor, but I could be wrong.

 

[bore_u2_death]

Yes, but the display has to be a 3D display. I'm pretty sure it won't work properly with a normal monitor, but I could be wrong.

So I can take any old 5000 series or GT 240 and hook it up via DVI to a DLP rear projection TV and get 3D?

Why haven't people been doing this!?!?

 

[Red Falcon]

So I can take any old 5000 series or GT 240 and hook it up via DVI to a DLP rear projection TV and get 3D?

Why haven't people been doing this!?!?

The video card itself must support this, the HD5000 cards do not support this, only NVIDIA cards. Also, you need the 3D glasses from NVIDIA, not everyone does this because unless you REALLY REALLY like 3D, it's very expensive and gives a lot of people headaches.

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

The video card itself must support this, the HD5000 cards do not support this, only NVIDIA cards. Also, you need the 3D glasses from NVIDIA, not everyone does this because unless you REALLY REALLY like 3D, it's very expensive and gives a lot of people headaches.

Gives me a headache. Nice to try though, but I wouldn't want to use it over any long period of time.

AMD have full support of 3D now via iz3d (also 5000 series). The 3D DLP driver is free (for AMD users) and so in anaglyph:
http://www.iz3d.com/select_download

 

[DedEmbryonicCe11]

Gives me a headache. Nice to try though, but I wouldn't want to use it over any long period of time.

AMD have full support of 3D now via iz3d (also 5000 series). The 3D DLP driver is free (for AMD users) and so in anaglyph:
http://www.iz3d.com/select_download

That applies to some of the 4xxx cards as well.

 

[bore_u2_death]

OK so what this means is that 3D is not constrained to HDMI 1.4a, but the display has to support 3D and have dual link DVI if not HDMI. This really opens up 3D compatibility from only the newest GPUs.

Thanks alot guys. If I build an HTPC, I will use a Radeon HD 5570 hooked up via DVI to my display. Anyone know of 3D displays with DVI?

 

[WBurchnall]

The dual 1080p decoding goes back to before HD3D support and is an old/sore subject to many. Its an issue involving Blu-ray discs versus the HD-DVD spec. HD-DVD spec included two decoders or two 1080 decoders are required for every hd-dvd device.

How/why is this good? Its good because you'd have the movie 'The Matrix playing' and in the top window have a smaller box with 'Keanu Reeves talking about how woahhh it was to say woahh when woahh he dodged bullets". IE the director commentary could be video-commentary on commentary.

Worried that it's covering Trinity in leather b/c its positioned in the upper right corner? Hit a button in your remove on its now on the lower left corner. Alternatively, its now the full-window or its in the background and just the audio is playing. Kind of neat-idea/way to do director's commentary perhaps?

Blu-ray's implementation. Hardcode the directors video commentary over the video. Put the video on the disc twice. Once for the movie, once for the movei with video commentary. Taking double the space......but hey! Its a bigger disc so its all cool, am I right or what? Double up the data, b/c that's what the space is for! Then use mpeg2 instead of VC-1 for often comparably worse quality!....

Annnnnyways, there ended up being some concerns regarding this ...fairly crappy/cheap implementation of video commentary in Blu-ray spec 1.0. So in Blu-ray spec 2.0? 2.1B? something like that, it is now manditory that new blu-ray players come with two 1080p decoding devices! So Blu-ray can do the decoding of the commentary in the same manner. Aka, six months later and a new spec for a features HD-DVD had on day one! I know I sound like a sore loser saying this don't I?

So your video card needs to be the latest blu-ray profile to be capable of decoding 2 1080p streams in order to watch the directors commentary. Without this, you can still watch the regular movie fine, just some of the bonus features won't work ie video commentary from directors/actors/set designers/whatever. The question is, how many people actually watch the bonus features on movies and how many consumers does this concern? Probably less than 5% in my estimate.

In regards to your 3D question, it really depends on a few factors what type of HDMI spec you need/want to use. The newer specs support higher-bandwidth basically. It's important if you want 120hz(60hz for each eye) 1080p 3d video. However, you can also get 60hz(30hz for each eye) 1080p 3d video which as you might be able to imagine requires less bandwidth and only a 60hz monitor. The downside is our like twice as likely to get eye-strain/headaches with a lower refresh rate. Or so the complainers about 3D claim but really its a bit hard to say and a bit based off personal experience. I for one have never had headaches with 3D for example. In either case, your going to need an emitter that syncs your shutter glasses opening/closing aka turning on/off the elecrity going to the frame rate of your display. So your left eye sees every even frame and your right eye sees every odd frame. Hence, the creation of the 3D effect.

You can find a list/chart of what type of HDMI supports what modes(IE lossless audio, etc) on wikipedia.

In regards to your 3D-display question, a lot of modern TVs that support 3D (aka 120hz input by tv manufacturer's definition) that usually automatically comes with a minimum of a 500k:1 contrast ratio and upconverting to 240hz-600hz have usually 3-4 HDMI inputs and maybe 2 component inputs and generally no DVI/vga-15-pin-dsub connections anymore. You can buy HDMI cords though that on one side are dual-link DVI and on the other end are HDMI1.4a or alternative since the 5750/6xxx series have an hdmi output on them, just go from hdmi > hdmi. Right?

If your talking about 3D monitors in terms of PC-displays IE 24" Samsung Syncmaster 120hz lcd, they tend to usually come with a DVI and a HDMI input. So you could go DVI from video card to
DVI on monitor or hdmi to hdmi if you wanted.

 

[Snowknight26]

I don't think there are any Blu-rays that have a 1080p PiP track. All of them are either SD or the video is encoded twice - once for the main feature and once with the main feature plus the 'PiP' track superimposed over it. Likewise for HD DVD, I don't believe any discs had a 1080p PiP track.

 

[bore_u2_death]

In regards to your 3D-display question, a lot of modern TVs that support 3D (aka 120hz input by tv manufacturer's definition) that usually automatically comes with a minimum of a 500k:1 contrast ratio and upconverting to 240hz-600hz have usually 3-4 HDMI inputs and maybe 2 component inputs and generally no DVI/vga-15-pin-dsub connections anymore. You can buy HDMI cords though that on one side are dual-link DVI and on the other end are HDMI1.4a or alternative since the 5750/6xxx series have an hdmi output on them, just go from hdmi > hdmi. Right?

I'm going to create a hypothetical situation that should hopefully answer my question:

An HTPC with a newer GPU, lets say the Radeon 5670. If I wanted to hook it up to this TVhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889252098, would 3D in fact be possible? How would you hook it up to allow that?

Thank you very very much for your post. The information was extremely informative. The HD-DVD's implementation of PiP is ingenious, as is requiring Dolby TrueHD on all releases. When you have all that extra space to burn, you slack off.