Now, I know this isn't the killer video card range by any stretch of the
imagination, but I think it should be relatively powerful enough. I just
don't know if the functionality exists in this card though. I've
upgraded to the latest Catalyst 7.4 drivers, and I was under the
impression that these drivers will allow you to encode/decode the H.264
video through the GPU rather than the CPU.
First, is this feature really available on these drivers? Second, if so,
then is it available on my particular generation of GPU? Assuming that,
then is there a special video codec that needs to run to make use of the
GPU for H.264? Basically, how would I know that I'm using the GPU rather
than the CPU?
"Yousuf Khan" <bbbl67@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1o6dnSza64AWZanb4p2dnA@giganews.com...
> Now, I know this isn't the killer video card range by any stretch of the
> imagination, but I think it should be relatively powerful enough. I just
> don't know if the functionality exists in this card though. I've
> upgraded to the latest Catalyst 7.4 drivers, and I was under the
> impression that these drivers will allow you to encode/decode the H.264
> video through the GPU rather than the CPU.
>
> First, is this feature really available on these drivers? Second, if so,
> then is it available on my particular generation of GPU? Assuming that,
> then is there a special video codec that needs to run to make use of the
> GPU for H.264? Basically, how would I know that I'm using the GPU rather
> than the CPU?
the feature is supported by the card.
HOWEVER.
it's not down to the drivers - it's down to the software you use - you need
software that uses the hardware accelaration.
i think the newest HD compatible version of power dvd does.
only problem is, the x1600 is only able to suffiiciently accelarate 720p -
not 1080p - and there are 1080p sources out there.
for me personally, i get better results using the core codec and letting
that do the job in software.
with that, i can play 1080p x264 without dropping frames on my 3ghz pentium
with x1600 card as long as i don't have other things going on at the same
time.
On Apr 29, 4:14 pm, "the dog from that film you saw"
<d...@removethisportionbtinternet.com> wrote:
> the feature is supported by the card.
> HOWEVER.
>
> it's not down to the drivers - it's down to the software you use - you need
> software that uses the hardware accelaration.
> i think the newest HD compatible version of power dvd does.
> --
> Gareth.
Okay, so my older version of Power DVD 6 won't have that, I guess? And
I assume that Windows Media Player also doesn't have it? I'm not as
interested in playing Blu-Ray or HD-DVD as I am in playing *.MP4
files, etc.
"YKhan" <yjkhan@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1177879812.221702.43390@y80g2000hsf.googlegro ups.com...
> On Apr 29, 4:14 pm, "the dog from that film you saw"
> Okay, so my older version of Power DVD 6 won't have that, I guess? And
> I assume that Windows Media Player also doesn't have it? I'm not as
> interested in playing Blu-Ray or HD-DVD as I am in playing *.MP4
> files, etc.
in that case i'd suggest you do as i did and get the core codec - i know
it's galling to have the hardware accelaration and not be using it, but the
fact is it does the job - i use media player classic plus the codec.
the dog from that film you saw wrote:
> in that case i'd suggest you do as i did and get the core codec - i know
> it's galling to have the hardware accelaration and not be using it, but the
> fact is it does the job - i use media player classic plus the codec.
"Yousuf Khan" <bbbl67@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:M42dnWlqFPYhiKjb4p2dnA@giganews.com...
> the dog from that film you saw wrote:
>> in that case i'd suggest you do as i did and get the core codec - i know
>> it's galling to have the hardware accelaration and not be using it, but
>> the fact is it does the job - i use media player classic plus the codec.
>
>
> Is that what they're called, the Core Codecs?
>
just core codec - no plural.
i'd suggest checking out doom9.org for details on how to use it.
I have done some tests with getting the ATI x1600 card with 512 MB memory to work with h.264 and Full HD (1080p) files stored on the hard drive. My computer is a Pentium 4 at 2.4 GHz, Windows Vista and 1.5 Gb RAM.
I started by downloading the trial version of the Cyberlink ATI codec for h.264 that said it was the first driver to be able to utilise hardware acceleration on the graphics card. As I had FFDShow codec on my computer, this was automatically chosen and had to be blocked in Media Player Classic. After I disabled this, it seems like the Cyberlink codec was being used, but the information in media player said that DXVA was not being supported by the graphics card. I am not 100% sure that I have done everything correct but I was not able to find a way to utilise the x1600 card for decoding the H.264 file. The CPU did all the decoding and the 1080p clip was not running smothly. The CPU load was at a constant 100%.
Next step (after reading some more) was to test with Nero Showtime of Nero 9, which was supposed to have integrated support for using hardware acceleration on the x1600 card. I could enable hardware acceleration in the menu, but as I tried to play the clip this was disabled.. same results as above.
After that I tested PowerDVD 7. Same result as above... hardware acceleration got disabled as the clips was played.
After that I tested PowerDVD 8. Same result as above...
Finally .. testing PowerDVD 9.. Hardware acceleration works.. :-). My CPU load went from 100% down to 15 - 25%. The bad news is that the film clip is still not running smothly. My concludison after this test is that the x1600 card is not able to decode the full HD 1080p clip.
Further than this I have tested with core codec and several other. I have still not been able to find any way to run a full HD h.264 clip on this setup. I guess I need a new computer.
H.264 video through X1600 GPU? 
Linear Mode
