Confused about HW acceleration enable, xvid, etc! (1 Viewer)

[coopers]

Hi folks,

I am wondering if someone can set me straight on a few basics.

I notice that for things like Purevideo and Avivo, most players (PowerDVD, WMplayer etc) have a check box that you use to turn on "hardware acceleration" and then you also muck around in the actual Purevideo/Avivo software to set up what you want to accelerate.

So where is this button in mediaportal?

Now also, as far as I know, the graphics cards can only offload mpeg2 (and the later ones are doing other stuff, mpeg4, etc), so what if I want to play a divx or xvid file - is that NOT going to be able to be HW assisted?

If I want to postprocess divx or xvid, can I use something like ffdshow? Can you set ffdshow up so that it is "disabled" when playing something mpeg2 that the graphics card can accelerate? I would only want ffdshow to intervene when playing something the HW can't accelerate for example.


Lastly, if I am watching broadcast TV - this is mpeg2 here in Australia. Is the mpeg2 passed directly to the player so that it can be Hardware accelerated in it's decode by my graphics card? Or, is the DVB-T doing that?

thanks in advance!

 

[coopers]

Surely someone here knows this kind of info?!

thanks!

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

I notice that for things like Purevideo and Avivo, most players (PowerDVD, WMplayer etc) have a check box that you use to turn on "hardware acceleration" and then you also muck around in the actual Purevideo/Avivo software to set up what you want to accelerate

mpeg 2 only, which covers TV recordings and DVD.

So where is this button in mediaportal

MP setup\codec settings.

Now also, as far as I know, the graphics cards can only offload mpeg2 (and the later ones are doing other stuff, mpeg4, etc), so what if I want to play a divx or xvid file - is that NOT going to be able to be HW assisted

No, usually done by the cpu, but may be assisted by a Graphics card if supported, usually found only on really highend cards.

If I want to postprocess divx or xvid, can I use something like ffdshow? Can you set ffdshow up so that it is "disabled" when playing something mpeg2 that the graphics card can accelerate? I would only want ffdshow to intervene when playing something the HW can't accelerate for example.

FFDShow's default settings, will usually choose the Best for Divx\Xvid playback.
It does not natively support mpeg2, unless you enable it, so any other codec settings for mpeg2 should not be interfered with. (too many codecs spoil the broth ).

Lastly, if I am watching broadcast TV - this is mpeg2 here in Australia. Is the mpeg2 passed directly to the player so that it can be Hardware accelerated in it's decode by my graphics card? Or, is the DVB-T doing that

Mpeg2 stream is done by the DVB card and is exactly what is transmitted, the codec only affects your view of the file.

Hope above answers your questions

 

[coopers]

Lastly, if I am watching broadcast TV - this is mpeg2 here in Australia. Is the mpeg2 passed directly to the player so that it can be Hardware accelerated in it's decode by my graphics card? Or, is the DVB-T doing that

Mpeg2 stream is done by the DVB card and is exactly what is transmitted, the codec only affects your view of the file.

Hope above answers your questions

Yes it does, thankyou.

Just to clarify, you are saying that when watching normal TV, the DVB-T card will extract the mpeg2 stream, but decode can be hardware accelerated by my card?

 

[Lappen]

I would also like to know the answer to that question. I can get hardware acceleration when playing mpeg2, but is it also possible when playing a .ts stream from the tvserver? Btw, I get hardware acceleration when playing a recorded tv-show.

Tia/Lappen

 

[idioteque]

Hardware decoding is not that important, and Pentuim 2 300 Mhz can play an DVD quality Mpeg2 stream

Mpeg2 encoding, is far more important. so when recording hardware mpeg2 is recommended or else a p4 2400 Mhz is required.

So if recording a TS stream HW encoding free's up the CPU so it can do other things. Mpeg decoding is done mostly but CPU or by Nvidia GPU > 6500 and ATI enabled avivo cards

x264 or Mpeg 4 or Blueray is a different matter there a P4 3500 is the minimum and therefor a GPU can be handy

 

[Taipan]

Just to clarify, you are saying that when watching normal TV, the DVB-T card will extract the mpeg2 stream, but decode can be hardware accelerated by my card?

Yes, that's correct ...