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I think that is a bit of an overstatement if you have a recent GPU and manage to get DXVA working. CoreAVC is however by far the most efficient software codec for h264. On my HTPC with an Intel X9100 (2x3.0 Ghz) "mobile" CPU i can play 1080p ripped directly from Bluray without stuttering, but the CPU usage is usually very high (40-60%), which is enough to drive the CPU fan to maddening speeds. If i use other codecs without DXVA the CPU usage can run as high as 90%!


The trick is of course to get DXVA working. I had huge problems with my Intel X4500MHD in Vista, and ended up using CoreAVC for a long time. As an additional issue, some DXVA implementations will only support h264 AVC profiles up to L4.1 (as used on Bluray), and will act weird on profile 5.1 (which is not uncommon in trailers and other files retrieved online).


However, I just installed Windows 7 recently and the built-in microsoft codec for h264 (yes they added one and it actually seem to work), provides DXVA support for my Intel X4500MHD GPU. Playing back in this manner only uses about 10% CPU for the BD rips, and i have seen it go down to 0% for playing back a 1080p mp4 file encoded using profile L5.1. Finally i can get "fanless" playback of 1080p, and with the new subtitle support i can also view subtitles without problems without having to fallback to software decoding.


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