Do you care about the H.264 hardware decoding function in the ATIdisplay cards?

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 8.04.2) Linux 2.6.28.9
^ ^ 21:21:01 up 14 days 8:40 3 users load average: 1.03 1.06 1.01
???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ????? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...sub_addressesa

"Man-wai Chang ToDie (+MS=V32B)" wrote in message
...

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 8.04.2) Linux 2.6.28.9
^ ^ 21:21:01 up 14 days 8:40 3 users load average: 1.03 1.06 1.01
???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ????? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...sub_addressesa

As my processor (Athlon FX-53) is not powerful enough to decode 1080p H.264
at a full 24 fps, yes, I do care about hardware decode. Recently, DXVA
stopped working on my X1900XTX. I attributed it mainly to the Catalyst
release. Cat 9.3, the final driver that supports my aging hardware didn't
fix DXVA from my perspective. Then, I installed a CODEC bundle for Vista 64
from http://shark007.net/index.html. It had a built-in "reset" function,
which after running resulted in DXVA functionality being restored. Now I can
run 720p H.264 at full fps with about 40% CPU utilization and 1080p H.264
with about 80% CPU utilization.

It's obviously accelerating the decode, since a pure software path pegged my
CPU at 100% with lots of frame drops. However, I seem to remember the PU
utilization not rising about 20% back when I first tried DXVA in XP 32.

Tony

Are you sure ATi's DXVA implementation works on H.264 videos? As I
understood it, it worked only on WMV HD (aka VC-1) format, as indicated by
the "WMV Acceleration" checkbox in CCC. Are you sure you didn't just install
a more efficient software codec when you installed the bundle? :-)

For H.264, the software implementation in the CoreAVC codec is fast enough
on my Athlon X2 2.2 GHz. I get 20% CPU utilization with 720p 25fps videos,
according to Task Manager's method, which would be equivalent to 40%
utilization on a single-core CPU. The number did not change when I switched
from ATI X1900XT to Geforce 285.

The CoreAVC codec is available free he
http://codecpack.nl/coreavc1950.exe

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Tony DiMarzio" wrote in message
...
As my processor (Athlon FX-53) is not powerful enough to decode 1080p
H.264 at a full 24 fps, yes, I do care about hardware decode. Recently,
DXVA stopped working on my X1900XTX. I attributed it mainly to the
Catalyst release. Cat 9.3, the final driver that supports my aging
hardware didn't fix DXVA from my perspective. Then, I installed a CODEC
bundle for Vista 64 from http://shark007.net/index.html. It had a built-in
"reset" function, which after running resulted in DXVA functionality being
restored. Now I can run 720p H.264 at full fps with about 40% CPU
utilization and 1080p H.264 with about 80% CPU utilization.

It's obviously accelerating the decode, since a pure software path pegged
my CPU at 100% with lots of frame drops. However, I seem to remember the
PU utilization not rising about 20% back when I first tried DXVA in XP 32.

Tony

Whoops. I was confusing H.264 with WMV HD (VC-1). Silly me. I don't believe
I have any true H.264 content on my machine. I will download the CODEC you
linked below and see what kind of CPU utilization I get on my FX-53. Know
any place to download demo H.264 content?

As far as WMV DXVA acceleration goes, it was always enabled from the CCC
perspective. Something in the "reset" function of this Vista 64 CODEC pack
managed to turn the thing back on, though the CPU utilization reduction was
not as large as I remember with XP-32.

Tony

"First of One" wrote in message
...
Are you sure ATi's DXVA implementation works on H.264 videos? As I
understood it, it worked only on WMV HD (aka VC-1) format, as indicated by
the "WMV Acceleration" checkbox in CCC. Are you sure you didn't just
install a more efficient software codec when you installed the bundle? :-)

For H.264, the software implementation in the CoreAVC codec is fast enough
on my Athlon X2 2.2 GHz. I get 20% CPU utilization with 720p 25fps videos,
according to Task Manager's method, which would be equivalent to 40%
utilization on a single-core CPU. The number did not change when I
switched from ATI X1900XT to Geforce 285.

The CoreAVC codec is available free he
http://codecpack.nl/coreavc1950.exe

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Tony DiMarzio" wrote in message
...
As my processor (Athlon FX-53) is not powerful enough to decode 1080p
H.264 at a full 24 fps, yes, I do care about hardware decode. Recently,
DXVA stopped working on my X1900XTX. I attributed it mainly to the
Catalyst release. Cat 9.3, the final driver that supports my aging
hardware didn't fix DXVA from my perspective. Then, I installed a CODEC
bundle for Vista 64 from http://shark007.net/index.html. It had a
built-in "reset" function, which after running resulted in DXVA
functionality being restored. Now I can run 720p H.264 at full fps with
about 40% CPU utilization and 1080p H.264 with about 80% CPU utilization.

It's obviously accelerating the decode, since a pure software path pegged
my CPU at 100% with lots of frame drops. However, I seem to remember the
PU utilization not rising about 20% back when I first tried DXVA in XP
32.

Tony

Most Quicktime HD videos are H.264. If you rename the file extension from
*.mov to *.hdmov, the file will play with the system's preferred H.264
decoder in lieu of the Quicktime decoder. For example, name the following
720p trailer as *.hdmov when the "Save As" dialog box comes up (mind the
linebreaks):
http://moviesmovies.ign.com/movies/v...40108_qthd.mov
When Media Player Classic plays the resulting file on my system, it shows
CoreAVC as the decoder used. Since you just installed a codec pack, FFDShow
may be the current default H.264 decoder.

Both Gamevideos.com and Gametrailers.com are good places to download
high-def H.264 content.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Tony DiMarzio" wrote in message
...
Whoops. I was confusing H.264 with WMV HD (VC-1). Silly me. I don't
believe I have any true H.264 content on my machine. I will download the
CODEC you linked below and see what kind of CPU utilization I get on my
FX-53. Know any place to download demo H.264 content?

As far as WMV DXVA acceleration goes, it was always enabled from the CCC
perspective. Something in the "reset" function of this Vista 64 CODEC pack
managed to turn the thing back on, though the CPU utilization reduction
was not as large as I remember with XP-32.

Tony

"First of One" wrote in message
...
Are you sure ATi's DXVA implementation works on H.264 videos? As I
understood it, it worked only on WMV HD (aka VC-1) format, as indicated
by the "WMV Acceleration" checkbox in CCC. Are you sure you didn't just
install a more efficient software codec when you installed the bundle?
:-)

For H.264, the software implementation in the CoreAVC codec is fast
enough on my Athlon X2 2.2 GHz. I get 20% CPU utilization with 720p 25fps
videos, according to Task Manager's method, which would be equivalent to
40% utilization on a single-core CPU. The number did not change when I
switched from ATI X1900XT to Geforce 285.

The CoreAVC codec is available free he
http://codecpack.nl/coreavc1950.exe

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Tony DiMarzio" wrote in message
...
As my processor (Athlon FX-53) is not powerful enough to decode 1080p
H.264 at a full 24 fps, yes, I do care about hardware decode. Recently,
DXVA stopped working on my X1900XTX. I attributed it mainly to the
Catalyst release. Cat 9.3, the final driver that supports my aging
hardware didn't fix DXVA from my perspective. Then, I installed a CODEC
bundle for Vista 64 from http://shark007.net/index.html. It had a
built-in "reset" function, which after running resulted in DXVA
functionality being restored. Now I can run 720p H.264 at full fps with
about 40% CPU utilization and 1080p H.264 with about 80% CPU
utilization.

It's obviously accelerating the decode, since a pure software path
pegged my CPU at 100% with lots of frame drops. However, I seem to
remember the PU utilization not rising about 20% back when I first tried
DXVA in XP 32.

Tony

Just installed CoreAVC v1.9.5.0 in the link (previously I was running
v1.8.5.0). Looks like they put in an option for CUDA acceleration. For what
it's worth, CPU utilization dropped by half compared to the numbers I gave
below.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"First of One" wrote in message
...
Most Quicktime HD videos are H.264. If you rename the file extension from
*.mov to *.hdmov, the file will play with the system's preferred H.264
decoder in lieu of the Quicktime decoder. For example, name the following
720p trailer as *.hdmov when the "Save As" dialog box comes up (mind the
linebreaks):
http://moviesmovies.ign.com/movies/v...40108_qthd.mov
When Media Player Classic plays the resulting file on my system, it shows
CoreAVC as the decoder used. Since you just installed a codec pack,
FFDShow may be the current default H.264 decoder.

Both Gamevideos.com and Gametrailers.com are good places to download
high-def H.264 content.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Tony DiMarzio" wrote in message
...
Whoops. I was confusing H.264 with WMV HD (VC-1). Silly me. I don't
believe I have any true H.264 content on my machine. I will download the
CODEC you linked below and see what kind of CPU utilization I get on my
FX-53. Know any place to download demo H.264 content?

As far as WMV DXVA acceleration goes, it was always enabled from the CCC
perspective. Something in the "reset" function of this Vista 64 CODEC
pack managed to turn the thing back on, though the CPU utilization
reduction was not as large as I remember with XP-32.

Tony

"First of One" wrote in message
...
Are you sure ATi's DXVA implementation works on H.264 videos? As I
understood it, it worked only on WMV HD (aka VC-1) format, as indicated
by the "WMV Acceleration" checkbox in CCC. Are you sure you didn't just
install a more efficient software codec when you installed the bundle?
:-)

For H.264, the software implementation in the CoreAVC codec is fast
enough on my Athlon X2 2.2 GHz. I get 20% CPU utilization with 720p
25fps videos, according to Task Manager's method, which would be
equivalent to 40% utilization on a single-core CPU. The number did not
change when I switched from ATI X1900XT to Geforce 285.

The CoreAVC codec is available free he
http://codecpack.nl/coreavc1950.exe

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Tony DiMarzio" wrote in message
...
As my processor (Athlon FX-53) is not powerful enough to decode 1080p
H.264 at a full 24 fps, yes, I do care about hardware decode. Recently,
DXVA stopped working on my X1900XTX. I attributed it mainly to the
Catalyst release. Cat 9.3, the final driver that supports my aging
hardware didn't fix DXVA from my perspective. Then, I installed a CODEC
bundle for Vista 64 from http://shark007.net/index.html. It had a
built-in "reset" function, which after running resulted in DXVA
functionality being restored. Now I can run 720p H.264 at full fps with
about 40% CPU utilization and 1080p H.264 with about 80% CPU
utilization.

It's obviously accelerating the decode, since a pure software path
pegged my CPU at 100% with lots of frame drops. However, I seem to
remember the PU utilization not rising about 20% back when I first
tried DXVA in XP 32.

Tony

I downloaded the Zelda Film trailer and first tried it using Apple's
QuickTime decoder. The framerate was terrible while CPU is pegged at 100%. I
then viewed the same H.264 file using libavcodec (from ffdshow) and the
framerate was perfect with CPU utilization ranging from 50% to 70%. I've
since removed QuickTime Alternative (which was providing Apple's decoder)
and am using ffdshow exclusively for .mov and .hdmov extensions.

Also, it turns out R600 and later based ATI cards do support DXVA with
H.264. From
http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watc...os-using-dxva/, here are
the ATI and NVidia cards which support DXVA with H.264

ATI:-
RadeonT HD 3800 Series, RadeonT HD 3600 Series, RadeonT HD 3400 Series,
RadeonT HD 2600 Series, RadeonT HD 2400 Series, Mobility RadeonT HD 3600
Series, Mobility RadeonT HD 3400 Series, Mobility RadeonT HD 2600 Series,
Mobility RadeonT HD 2400 Series, Mobility RadeonT HD 2300 Series, Radeon
780G integrated chipset - UVD 2 + AVP 2 (with Phenom only),Radeon HD 4xxx HD
Series - UVD 2 + AVP 2.

nVidia:-
All GeForce 8xxx cards and IGPs except GeForce 8800GTS/GTX with G80 core.
All GeForce 9xxx cards and IGPs. All GeForce 2xx cards.

Unfortunately, my R580 based X1900XTX won't cut it. Interstingly enough
though, DXVA checker does report that H.264 DXVA with AVIVO is available and
enabled. It's probably just exposed by the driver even though the hardware
can't take advantage of it.

Tony

"First of One" wrote in message
...
Most Quicktime HD videos are H.264. If you rename the file extension from
*.mov to *.hdmov, the file will play with the system's preferred H.264
decoder in lieu of the Quicktime decoder. For example, name the following
720p trailer as *.hdmov when the "Save As" dialog box comes up (mind the
linebreaks):
http://moviesmovies.ign.com/movies/v...40108_qthd.mov
When Media Player Classic plays the resulting file on my system, it shows
CoreAVC as the decoder used. Since you just installed a codec pack,
FFDShow may be the current default H.264 decoder.

Both Gamevideos.com and Gametrailers.com are good places to download
high-def H.264 content.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Tony DiMarzio" wrote in message
...
Whoops. I was confusing H.264 with WMV HD (VC-1). Silly me. I don't
believe I have any true H.264 content on my machine. I will download the
CODEC you linked below and see what kind of CPU utilization I get on my
FX-53. Know any place to download demo H.264 content?

As far as WMV DXVA acceleration goes, it was always enabled from the CCC
perspective. Something in the "reset" function of this Vista 64 CODEC
pack managed to turn the thing back on, though the CPU utilization
reduction was not as large as I remember with XP-32.

Tony

"First of One" wrote in message
...
Are you sure ATi's DXVA implementation works on H.264 videos? As I
understood it, it worked only on WMV HD (aka VC-1) format, as indicated
by the "WMV Acceleration" checkbox in CCC. Are you sure you didn't just
install a more efficient software codec when you installed the bundle?
:-)

For H.264, the software implementation in the CoreAVC codec is fast
enough on my Athlon X2 2.2 GHz. I get 20% CPU utilization with 720p
25fps videos, according to Task Manager's method, which would be
equivalent to 40% utilization on a single-core CPU. The number did not
change when I switched from ATI X1900XT to Geforce 285.

The CoreAVC codec is available free he
http://codecpack.nl/coreavc1950.exe

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Tony DiMarzio" wrote in message
...
As my processor (Athlon FX-53) is not powerful enough to decode 1080p
H.264 at a full 24 fps, yes, I do care about hardware decode. Recently,
DXVA stopped working on my X1900XTX. I attributed it mainly to the
Catalyst release. Cat 9.3, the final driver that supports my aging
hardware didn't fix DXVA from my perspective. Then, I installed a CODEC
bundle for Vista 64 from http://shark007.net/index.html. It had a
built-in "reset" function, which after running resulted in DXVA
functionality being restored. Now I can run 720p H.264 at full fps with
about 40% CPU utilization and 1080p H.264 with about 80% CPU
utilization.

It's obviously accelerating the decode, since a pure software path
pegged my CPU at 100% with lots of frame drops. However, I seem to
remember the PU utilization not rising about 20% back when I first
tried DXVA in XP 32.

Tony

"Tony DiMarzio" wrote in message
...
I downloaded the Zelda Film trailer and first tried it using Apple's
QuickTime decoder. The framerate was terrible while CPU is pegged at 100%.
I then viewed the same H.264 file using libavcodec (from ffdshow) and the
framerate was perfect with CPU utilization ranging from 50% to 70%. I've
since removed QuickTime Alternative (which was providing Apple's decoder)
and am using ffdshow exclusively for .mov and .hdmov extensions.

50%-70% is actually pretty high. I think FFDShow isn't as optimized as
CoreAVC.

Also, it turns out R600 and later based ATI cards do support DXVA with
H.264. From
http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watc...os-using-dxva/, here are
the ATI and NVidia cards which support DXVA with H.264

That's a lot of work just to get DXVA running. :-)

BTW, the CUDA acceleration in CoreAVC seems to work with all video clips
that CoreAVC can decode, including HDMOV, x264, x264 in Matroska, Youtube
MP4... It's surprisingly robust.

Unfortunately, my R580 based X1900XTX won't cut it. Interstingly enough
though, DXVA checker does report that H.264 DXVA with AVIVO is available
and enabled. It's probably just exposed by the driver even though the
hardware can't take advantage of it.

I wonder if this is related to the AVIVO Video Converter being broken in
Vista 64?


--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

First of One wrote:
Just installed CoreAVC v1.9.5.0 in the link (previously I was running
v1.8.5.0). Looks like they put in an option for CUDA acceleration. For what
it's worth, CPU utilization dropped by half compared to the numbers I gave
below.

CUDA? That's not ATI stuff.... ?

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 8.04.2) Linux 2.6.28.9
^ ^ 13:32:01 up 15 days 51 min 3 users load average: 1.10 1.06 1.01
???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ????? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...sub_addressesa

Correct, the topic has deviated pretty far from your original post.

To answer your question, I don't care about H.264 hardware decoding, because
well-optimized software decoding with CoreAVC is fast enough (even without
invoking CUDA on my Geforce 285).

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


"Man-wai Chang ToDie (+MS=V32B)" wrote in message
...
CUDA? That's not ATI stuff.... ?