Worth mentioning (?):
nVidias new 7050-series (integrated gfx) has HW-support for H.264, and AMDs follow-up for the 690g - the 780(somthing - w/UVD) - will also have HW-support for H.264.
I'm planing on buying the Abit 7050 (the only 7050 available in Norway ATM) and with AMDs latest 45W dual core CPU.
The 7050 for Intel C2D has been delayed - and AMDs 700-series for Intel has been put on hold, perhaps forever (correct med if I am wrong).
In my opinion there is a huge gap in the market for graphics cards that concentrate more on 2d video and and hd output in many formats and very little on 3d capability and huge amounts of ram.
There is going to be a big need for a product like that in the near future.
The 2600XT is out! and cheap! http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/440/7/
It's far from the best gaming card out there, but it takes ~20% off cpu-load when encoding HD-movies, compared to an 8600GT!