ATI Leads High-Definition Video Transition On PCs

**MIG-31** · May 26, 2005, 07:22 PM

MARKHAM, Ontario & TAIPEI, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2005-- ATI Technologies Inc. solidifies its PC video and display leadership with the first public demonstration of high-definition H.264 video playback with hardware acceleration on the PC platform. H.264 is the video compression standard that will be used in the next generation high-definition video players such as Blu-ray and HD-DVD. The ATI H.264 video demonstration with ATI's next generation Radeon® technology will occur during Computex Taipei 2005 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

H.264 is a new video compression standard that's designed to have two to three times the compression efficiency of current schemes such as MPEG-2, while simultaneously improving overall image quality. This increased compression efficiency is highly computationally demanding, therefore graphics hardware assistance is crucial for real-time decoding of high bit-rate video. Working with industry leaders including CyberLink Corp., ATI's Radeon graphics acceleration technology meets the high-definition and computational demands of H.264.

"Consumers are clamoring for the amazing visual quality that Blu-ray and HD-DVD will bring to PCs," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, PC Business Unit, ATI Technologies. "ATI is transforming the PC video landscape by leading the industry adoption of Blu-ray and HD DVD on the PC. This new innovation builds upon ATI's unrivaled video and display technologies."

The ATI demonstration at Computex features H.264 playback with Radeon technology and a CyberLink video player application. In addition to hardware acceleration of H.264, the Radeon processor is performing next generation video processing and showing off advanced display capabilities.

ATI will exhibit PC video and graphics innovations from May 31 to June 4, in the Regency Ballroom-1F, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan.
_______________
Source: ATI

heffeque · May 26, 2005, 10:23 PM

Wow... and when will they implement that in the drivers? In 2009 maybe? I've been waiting for WMV acceleration to work for months and months and I'm getting old now just from waiting.

*CATALYST maker* · May 26, 2005, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heffeque

Wow... and when will they implement that in the drivers? In 2009 maybe? I've been waiting for WMV acceleration to work for months and months and I'm getting old now just from waiting.

The WMV acceleration was ready on our end a very long time ago.

BUT you need a hotfix from Microsoft to actually make it work. It is a patch for Windows Media Player 10 patch actually.

Hope you understand the point.

~~Hundredswords~~ · May 27, 2005, 02:32 AM

What about WMV7/VMR-7 acceleration? You don't need hotfix for that in Windows Media Player 10. But still no support ...

wolfran · May 27, 2005, 03:32 AM

I'm guessing the new feature will be present in the R520 cards, right?
I'll be one happy man if the card will be introduced during the computex and hopefully it will be availabe soon after.

griswoold · May 27, 2005, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CATALYST maker

The WMV acceleration was ready on our end a very long time ago.

BUT you need a hotfix from Microsoft to actually make it work. It is a patch for Windows Media Player 10 patch actually.

Hope you understand the point.

While we are at it

Can developers of other video players for example bsplayer

also incorperate wmv acceleration into their players or is it only possible with WMP10?

griswoold · May 27, 2005, 06:24 AM

btw http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888656/en-us

patch for WMP10 to enable DXVA

heffeque · May 27, 2005, 12:49 PM

Thanks!!! Out of curiosity: why isn't this patch in the Windows Update page?

Edit: Does this update need SP2? Because I'm still in SP1 and it wont install...

*CATALYST maker* · May 27, 2005, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfran

I'm guessing the new feature will be present in the R520 cards, right?
I'll be one happy man if the card will be introduced during the computex and hopefully it will be availabe soon after.

the feature is for all of our DX9 and higher capable hardware

*CATALYST maker* · May 27, 2005, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by griswoold

btw http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888656/en-us

patch for WMP10 to enable DXVA

i know! im glad to see it. We can finally move on enabling this feature

Chaos · May 27, 2005, 07:31 PM

Well this is good news

swimtech · May 27, 2005, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CATALYST maker

i know! im glad to see it. We can finally move on enabling this feature

Could this feature be enabled or available for any older cards, such as the 9500+ cards?

Shadow Lady · May 27, 2005, 08:16 PM

is the patch only for WMP10? cauze i kinda hate WMP

CruNcher · May 27, 2005, 08:20 PM

Is this feature only really useable via WMP10 doesn't work directly via the DMO driver over MPC for example i can't see any improvement on my Radeon 9800 pro (r360) in terms of Cpu utilization with MPC

useing Catalyst 5.4 and WMV accelleration on.

@Catalyst_Maker
a list what and how is supported would be really nice :P

*CATALYST maker* · May 27, 2005, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swimtech

Could this feature be enabled or available for any older cards, such as the 9500+ cards?

yes

*CATALYST maker* · May 27, 2005, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Lady

is the patch only for WMP10? cauze i kinda hate WMP

Yes

*CATALYST maker* · May 27, 2005, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CruNcher

Is this feature only really useable via WMP10 doesn't work directly via the DMO driver over MPC for example i can't see any improvement on my Radeon 9800 pro (r360) in terms of Cpu utilization with MPC

useing Catalyst 5.4 and WMV accelleration on.

@Catalyst_Maker
a list what and how is supported would be really nice :P

What:
RADEON 9500 and higher

How:
A future version of CATALYST CONTROL CENTER will have a checkbox to let you enable this.

Dont expect to see anything different unless you have hi-def content

Daim · May 27, 2005, 09:18 PM

seems like there isn't a dutch version of that patch.. i can't install the english one

EDIT:
i think i found it
[color=black]http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/9/6/f969ae58-75d4-4241-b58c-9a295372d8c0/windowsmedia10-kb888656-x86-global-enu.exe[/color]

heffeque · May 28, 2005, 03:00 AM

ah, so it's that... only for english version then? I though it might be the SP2 stuff.

bhanja_Trinanja · Jun 2, 2005, 10:17 PM

I downloaded the latest patch from microsoft to enable wmv hd decode in wmp10.
I also installed the other patch which was necessary for the acceleration to work.
With both patches installed, I set ALL instances of DXVA_WMV=1 in the registry.
I set the desktop to 1024 x 768 x 32
Then I rebooted and ran the amazon 720p clip(downloaded from wmv hd showcase sample clips)
The cpu usage was 40 -70 % before this patch was installed.
Now, the clip consumed a staggering 94 % cpu with avg fps=20 (audio lagged video)
So, this patch did not work on my rig.
It only works if I play 1080p clips with the desktop set to 800 x 600 x 32 with a 25 % drop in cpu usage.
These are strange results.
I get these results on a consistent basis.
If I disable VMR in wmp10 so that the patch no longer comes into play I get smooth playback in amazon 720p(40-70% cpu)

Please look into this!
config:
athlon xp 2000+
asus a7v333 rev 2.00 bios 1014 (via kt333/8233a)
agp 4x + fast writes on
512 mb cl2.5 ddr333
gigabyte radeon 9600XT with latest bios from gigabyte and overclocked to 562/704(rock stable)
latest drivers for everything
catalyst 5.5
windows xp pro sp2 + all updates

swimtech · Jun 2, 2005, 10:54 PM

It seems to me that the folks at ATI haven't yet enabled the feature in their driver yet, especially for the older cards that CATALYST maker said should be able to do this in the future - hence the funky result - but at least you gave it a try!

Take a look at the news from Computex at Anand's (www.anandtech.com) site from Day 1, where they saw a running R520 with the HD stuff working. ATI seems to be represented as saying in that article that they are still working on that feature for the older cards...

bhanja_Trinanja · Jun 3, 2005, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swimtech

It seems to me that the folks at ATI haven't yet enabled the feature in their driver yet, especially for the older cards that CATALYST maker said should be able to do this in the future - hence the funky result - but at least you gave it a try!

Take a look at the news from Computex at Anand's (www.anandtech.com) site from Day 1, where they saw a running R520 with the HD stuff working. ATI seems to be represented as saying in that article that they are still working on that feature for the older cards...

But that's H.264 acceleration! Divx HD acceleration works on the radeon 9600xt. wmv hd is also supposed to, since ati always said that they had completed this feature long time back and was waiting for a patch from microsoft!

heffeque · Jun 3, 2005, 12:47 PM

bhanja_Trinanja es right, more people have been having these problems since they patched wmp10 up.

Oh, and bhanja... you should realy disable fastwrites ;-)

bhanja_Trinanja · Jun 3, 2005, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heffeque

bhanja_Trinanja es right, more people have been having these problems since they patched wmp10 up.

Oh, and bhanja... you should realy disable fastwrites ;-)

Fast Writes greatly reduce cpu usage during video playback, independent of graphics card assisted hardware acceleration.
Summary of video playback performance on my rig:

Amazon 720p + Fast writes=on + legacy video renderer: 40-70% cpu, smooth playback, desktop res=1024 x 768 x 32@75hz

Amazon 720p + Fast writes=off + legacy video renderer: 60-80% cpu, smooth playback, desktop res=1024 x 768 x 32@75hz

Amazon 720p + Fast writes=on + VMR(latest hd decode patch): 85-95% cpu, jerky playback, desktop res=1024 x 768 x 32@75hz

Go fix it!

heffeque · Jun 3, 2005, 02:00 PM

it does? wow, I'm surprised since it's always said that FW makes the computer a bit unstable and no performace gain in games... I'll try with mine in a few days whenever I reboot :P

bhanja_Trinanja · Jun 3, 2005, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heffeque

it does? wow, I'm surprised since it's always said that FW makes the computer a bit unstable and no performace gain in games... I'll try with mine in a few days whenever I reboot :P

Yes! It does.... especially on a number of AMD and AMD64 AGP systems. On my rig, it works wonders! Fast Writes never ever made my system unstable. Normally, an unstable system is a sign of hardware/firmware failure/bugs. For example, the latest bios(v1017) for my a7v333 will cause random screen garbling and 3dmark 05 crashes. I faced those issues for months! Then I downgraded my bios back to ver1014 and all problems vanished! Currently, my rig runs rock stable 24 x 7!
Conclusion: LATEST can mean BUG-FEST!

heffeque · Jun 3, 2005, 04:44 PM

hmm... just rebooted to check it out and... yep, FW does make video playback les CPU dependant. Thanks!

bhanja_Trinanja · Jul 23, 2005, 08:00 PM

So, how are you guys doing with Catalyst 5.7 on R3xx cards when you use wmv hd acceleration?

May 26, 2005, 07:22 PM	#1
MIG-31 HardwareHeaven News Mod Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Nottingham,UK Posts: 55,779 Rep Power: 444 System Specs	ATI Leads High-Definition Video Transition On PCs MARKHAM, Ontario & TAIPEI, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2005-- ATI Technologies Inc. solidifies its PC video and display leadership with the first public demonstration of high-definition H.264 video playback with hardware acceleration on the PC platform. H.264 is the video compression standard that will be used in the next generation high-definition video players such as Blu-ray and HD-DVD. The ATI H.264 video demonstration with ATI's next generation Radeon® technology will occur during Computex Taipei 2005 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. H.264 is a new video compression standard that's designed to have two to three times the compression efficiency of current schemes such as MPEG-2, while simultaneously improving overall image quality. This increased compression efficiency is highly computationally demanding, therefore graphics hardware assistance is crucial for real-time decoding of high bit-rate video. Working with industry leaders including CyberLink Corp., ATI's Radeon graphics acceleration technology meets the high-definition and computational demands of H.264. "Consumers are clamoring for the amazing visual quality that Blu-ray and HD-DVD will bring to PCs," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, PC Business Unit, ATI Technologies. "ATI is transforming the PC video landscape by leading the industry adoption of Blu-ray and HD DVD on the PC. This new innovation builds upon ATI's unrivaled video and display technologies." The ATI demonstration at Computex features H.264 playback with Radeon technology and a CyberLink video player application. In addition to hardware acceleration of H.264, the Radeon processor is performing next generation video processing and showing off advanced display capabilities. ATI will exhibit PC video and graphics innovations from May 31 to June 4, in the Regency Ballroom-1F, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan. _______________ Source: ATI __________________ Please Post Your News Submissions Here

May 26, 2005, 10:23 PM	#2
heffeque DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Salamanca, Spain, Europe. Posts: 75 Rep Power: 0	Wow... and when will they implement that in the drivers? In 2009 maybe? I've been waiting for WMV acceleration to work for months and months and I'm getting old now just from waiting. __________________ (.-=Kiwi=-.)

May 27, 2005, 02:32 AM	#4
~~Hundredswords~~ Banned Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 62 Rep Power: 0	What about WMV7/VMR-7 acceleration? You don't need hotfix for that in Windows Media Player 10. But still no support ... Last edited by Hundredswords; May 27, 2005 at 02:37 AM.

May 27, 2005, 06:24 AM	#7
griswoold mr. vÃ¶gi Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 161 Rep Power: 0	btw http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888656/en-us patch for WMP10 to enable DXVA __________________ Glad to hear it because somebody has to blow that sucker up!

May 27, 2005, 12:49 PM	#8
heffeque DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Salamanca, Spain, Europe. Posts: 75 Rep Power: 0	Thanks!!! Out of curiosity: why isn't this patch in the Windows Update page? Edit: Does this update need SP2? Because I'm still in SP1 and it wont install... __________________ (.-=Kiwi=-.)

May 27, 2005, 03:32 AM	#5
wolfran DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 414 Rep Power: 0	I'm guessing the new feature will be present in the R520 cards, right? I'll be one happy man if the card will be introduced during the computex and hopefully it will be availabe soon after.

May 27, 2005, 07:31 PM	#11
Chaos Number Nine Join Date: May 2002 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 5,269 Rep Power: 165 System Specs	Well this is good news __________________

May 27, 2005, 08:16 PM	#13
Shadow Lady Avril Fan Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: somewhere in colombia, okok, bogotÃ¡ city :p Posts: 1,262 Rep Power: 0	is the patch only for WMP10? cauze i kinda hate WMP __________________ Oblivion ftw

May 27, 2005, 08:20 PM	#14
CruNcher DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Germany Posts: 39 Rep Power: 0	Is this feature only really useable via WMP10 doesn't work directly via the DMO driver over MPC for example i can't see any improvement on my Radeon 9800 pro (r360) in terms of Cpu utilization with MPC useing Catalyst 5.4 and WMV accelleration on. @Catalyst_Maker a list what and how is supported would be really nice :P

May 27, 2005, 09:18 PM	#18
Daim DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 69 Rep Power: 0	seems like there isn't a dutch version of that patch.. i can't install the english one EDIT: i think i found it [color=black]http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/9/6/f969ae58-75d4-4241-b58c-9a295372d8c0/windowsmedia10-kb888656-x86-global-enu.exe[/color] Last edited by Daim; May 27, 2005 at 09:26 PM.

May 28, 2005, 03:00 AM	#19
heffeque DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Salamanca, Spain, Europe. Posts: 75 Rep Power: 0	ah, so it's that... only for english version then? I though it might be the SP2 stuff. __________________ (.-=Kiwi=-.)

Jun 2, 2005, 10:17 PM	#20
bhanja_Trinanja DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	Attention:found Bug In Wmv Hd Decode! I downloaded the latest patch from microsoft to enable wmv hd decode in wmp10. I also installed the other patch which was necessary for the acceleration to work. With both patches installed, I set ALL instances of DXVA_WMV=1 in the registry. I set the desktop to 1024 x 768 x 32 Then I rebooted and ran the amazon 720p clip(downloaded from wmv hd showcase sample clips) The cpu usage was 40 -70 % before this patch was installed. Now, the clip consumed a staggering 94 % cpu with avg fps=20 (audio lagged video) So, this patch did not work on my rig. It only works if I play 1080p clips with the desktop set to 800 x 600 x 32 with a 25 % drop in cpu usage. These are strange results. I get these results on a consistent basis. If I disable VMR in wmp10 so that the patch no longer comes into play I get smooth playback in amazon 720p(40-70% cpu) Please look into this! config: athlon xp 2000+ asus a7v333 rev 2.00 bios 1014 (via kt333/8233a) agp 4x + fast writes on 512 mb cl2.5 ddr333 gigabyte radeon 9600XT with latest bios from gigabyte and overclocked to 562/704(rock stable) latest drivers for everything catalyst 5.5 windows xp pro sp2 + all updates

Jun 2, 2005, 10:54 PM	#21
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 122 System Specs	It seems to me that the folks at ATI haven't yet enabled the feature in their driver yet, especially for the older cards that CATALYST maker said should be able to do this in the future - hence the funky result - but at least you gave it a try! Take a look at the news from Computex at Anand's (www.anandtech.com) site from Day 1, where they saw a running R520 with the HD stuff working. ATI seems to be represented as saying in that article that they are still working on that feature for the older cards... __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Jun 3, 2005, 12:47 PM	#23
heffeque DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Salamanca, Spain, Europe. Posts: 75 Rep Power: 0	bhanja_Trinanja es right, more people have been having these problems since they patched wmp10 up. Oh, and bhanja... you should realy disable fastwrites ;-) __________________ (.-=Kiwi=-.) Last edited by heffeque; Jun 3, 2005 at 12:48 PM. Reason: want to add something

Jun 3, 2005, 02:00 PM	#25
heffeque DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Salamanca, Spain, Europe. Posts: 75 Rep Power: 0	it does? wow, I'm surprised since it's always said that FW makes the computer a bit unstable and no performace gain in games... I'll try with mine in a few days whenever I reboot :P __________________ (.-=Kiwi=-.)

Jun 3, 2005, 04:44 PM	#27
heffeque DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Salamanca, Spain, Europe. Posts: 75 Rep Power: 0	hmm... just rebooted to check it out and... yep, FW does make video playback les CPU dependant. Thanks! __________________ (.-=Kiwi=-.)

Jul 23, 2005, 08:00 PM	#28
bhanja_Trinanja DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	So, how are you guys doing with Catalyst 5.7 on R3xx cards when you use wmv hd acceleration?