HTPC, XFX7800Gt and "PureVideo"?

[capcom_suicide]

Hi,

Has anyone tried to use an XFX 7800GT (or similar) to connect to a plasma.

I want to connect the card to a pio 43'xde, and I was wondering about this "PureVideo" stuff.

Can anyone help explain what it is, and where it might help? Whats it all about?

[marcus]

I purchased the full version, it frees up your CPU offloading processing to your GPU so you should fine it eliminates stutter etc if your PC is half decent. It has a whole host of additional features which can be found here - http://www.nvidia.com/page/pg_20041215177473.html

[capcom_suicide]

I purchased the full version, it frees up your CPU offloading processing to your GPU so you should fine it eliminates stutter etc if your PC is half decent. It has a whole host of additional features which can be found here - http://www.nvidia.com/page/pg_20041215177473.html

Thanks mate.

So then it's a hardware option, that is locked without buying the software? Where is a good place to buy it?

The CPU is quite old now: 3.0Ghz, but the one with a 2MB cache. I have 2GB of DDR2.

Is that going to be good enough to justify the purchase?

[EvilBoris]

Its a software decoder designed especially by nvidia for Nvidia cards.
It is VERY good, far better than any upscaling DVD players in my opinion.

That will be about 20x the CPU it will need, as marcus said, most of the processing is done by the GFX card.

[SubparMario]

You can buy it in the official nvidia online shop. Or yarrrrr.

[Geezer]

Its a software decoder designed especially by nvidia for Nvidia cards.
It is VERY good, far better than any upscaling DVD players in my opinion.

That will be about 20x the CPU it will need, as marcus said, most of the processing is done by the GFX card.

What software do you need to take care of the upscaling? Does something like Power DVD do the trick? i'd like to get shot of my HD950 if this does a good job!

[Big N Veiny]

Yeah any DVD software upscales to the resolution you have your desktop set to.
I use media player classic, pure video and fddshow.

[sj33]

I've been using PowerDVD 7 w/ AVIVO (ATi's competitor to PureVideo), and have been disappointed that the image quality is nowhere as good as my Oppo, as I'm trying to ditch my Oppo and just use the PC to free up the DVI port.

New machine I'm building will have a 7950GX2 (and thus, PureVideo)... hoping for better results.

[capcom_suicide]

I've been using PowerDVD 7 w/ AVIVO (ATi's competitor to PureVideo), and have been disappointed that the image quality is nowhere as good as my Oppo, as I'm trying to ditch my Oppo and just use the PC to free up the DVI port.

New machine I'm building will have a 7950GX2 (and thus, PureVideo)... hoping for better results.

I'll give it ago and get back.

Basically since geting the 360, I don't use the office PC for games, so if this works well as an HTPC, I'll buy a shuttle and put the CPU/Memory and 7800 in that under the TV.

I'm actually quite happy with the 360 DVD playback, but it's lack of support for all my films on "Disk" means I need a media box solution really.

Thanks everyone for the help.

All the gear.................... No idea!

[sj33]

Thinking about it, if your doing this for a HTPC, wouldn't some sort of fanless passively-cooled 7600 be better?

[capcom_suicide]

Thinking about it, if your doing this for a HTPC, wouldn't some sort of fanless passively-cooled 7600 be better?

Yeah I guess. The PC is a freebie from work, I just added extra RAM and a 7800GT. The XFX7800GT is very quiet though, (WAAAAYY less noisy than then xbox 360) and since I've gotten used to my little white 747 simulator, I'm not so noise worried anymore. So I'm looking to do this on a budget. I have only got to buy a case, mobo and PSU for a HTPC.

I solved the sound issue with 5.1 "All the way to 11"

[capcom_suicide]

But now I am a bit stumped!

These are the components I want to use:

775 socket P4 630 @ 3.0Ghz
4x 512MB DDR2 PC4200 (2 matched 1GB pairs)
SATA HDD
DVD reader
XFX 7800GT Extreme Ed. PCI 16x recommended 450watt PSU

So then what "Mini" case to put that lot in?

My concern is the size of the 7800Gt and the power required to run it.

My current Sound card has no opitical out for 5.1, so I need a new one for this box.

Anyone help?

I guess my shopping list:

Barebones
Upgrade PSU
Soundcard with optical out.

[EvilBoris]

What software do you need to take care of the upscaling? Does something like Power DVD do the trick? i'd like to get shot of my HD950 if this does a good job!

Purevideo needs to be used with another DVD playing software, you can actually just use windows media player and purevideo in conjunction.

[sj33]

It seems to be a bit easier with Nvidia PureVideo, because you can just use the PureVideo codec. I assume it's a standard DirectShow codec, so you can use any application you want, eh?

With ATi AVIVO it's a bit more of a pain in the ass, since ATi don't have an official codec as such. The Cyberlink one supports it (and thus, PowerDVD), but as I say, not too impressed.

Worth remembering that both PureVideo and AVIVO just use DXVA for hardware acceleration, so you can use any codec that supports DXVA, it doesn't have the official ones. Not that there are many that support it yet (future version of CoreAVC will support it, high expectations there, as CoreAVC is already brilliant).

[EvilBoris]

I found that the difference between the PowerDVD decoder and the purevideo were VERY noticeable.

PowerDVD was noticeably much more blurry at 1366*768 (or whatever the nearest PC resoluition is)