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<blockquote data-quote="pannivas" data-source="post: 102825" data-attributes="member: 23174"><p>A very good article although it’s missing a Codec section. No matter if you have high or medium or low end hardware you will still need the best available decoders for the right job (i.e. MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, x264, AC3 sound)</p><p></p><p>Currently HD comes in 2 ways, either from a SAT/Cable broadcast stream or from an HDDVD/Blu-Ray device. Broadcast streams have lower bidrates because providers need to save bandwidth so that they can have more HD channels over one transponder. On the other hand HDDVD and Blu-Ray have higher bidrates.</p><p></p><p>HD content that comes from a broadcast channel it either comes in MPEG2 or H.264 currently only available in EU countries if I am not mistaken. As Tech Geek already mention on his OP H.264 is more resource intensive due to its higher compression methods thus it requires much more powerful hardware than MPEG2.</p><p></p><p>HD content coming from HDDVD or Blu-Ray devices the next generation DVD formats comes in three different codecs. VC-1 which by the way is an MS codec and only used in HDDVD at the moment, MPEG2 and H.264. The first generation HD movies are all encoded with MPEG2 and some VC-1, but recently studios stared using the match newer and better H.264 codec. Again here the same rules for hardware apply. You will need a much more powerful system to decode H.264 HD DVD movies than VC-1 and MPEG2 encoded HD DVD movies. Recent reviews from Anandtech site have shown that even a mid range Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (Currently Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs are the faster Desktop processor in the market) with the latest video cards in the market have difficulties decoding H.264 HDDVD/Blu-Ray movies. See reviews below for more information</p><p><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2890" target="_blank">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2890</a> (HD-DVD Playback)</p><p><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2886" target="_blank">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2886</a> (Blu-Ray H.264 playback)</p><p><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2874" target="_blank">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2874</a> (NVIDIA and ATI HDCP video cards)</p><p></p><p>Please note the following decoders work for me whereas for some others a different solution is preferred. </p><p>Hardware Specifications</p><p>CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.4Ghz, 4MB L2 cache)</p><p>Motherboard: Asus P5B Deluxe.</p><p>Memory: 1GB of DDR800</p><p>Video Card: Currently Gigabyte 6600 will be using LeadTek 7900GS Stock OC soon.</p><p>Audio: Onboard soundmax (which I hate), waiting for my AuzenTech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS</p><p>I do not use a Tuner as TV where I live SUCKS.</p><p></p><p>1) For MPEG2 HD decoding I use NVIDIA’s PureVideo decoder. If you have an NVIDIA 6xxxx or 7xxxx series PureVideo will utilize the hardware acceleration feature which basically uses GPU power to offload some of your CPU load when decoding MPEG2 HD content files, it also gives a much better PQ. Have in mind that this does not support hardware acceleration for VC-1 or H.264 encoded movies. For the two above you will need a 7xxxx series NVIDIA video card with the newer NVIDIA PureVideo HD software, currently included in the latest 7xxxx series Forceware drivers if I am not mistaken. Also have in mind that NVIDIA PureVideo greatly relays on the GPU clock speed. The faster the clock speed of your video card the better job it will do offloading your CPU.</p><p>2) H.264 and x264 decoding. I use CoreAVC. Currently the best solution out there and its also multithread and any good Intel/AMD Dual Core CPU should have no problem of decoding 720p/1080i or 1080p H.264/x264 movies. I haven’t yet tested the NVIDIA’s PureVideo HD yet as I am still waiting on my new 7900GS video card. I will give some feedback once I do but I highly doubt that it will be a better solution than CoreAVC at the moment. Check the above reviews from Anandtech site for HDDVD and Blu-Ray H.264 decoding as the hardware needed to decode those are much higher than what you need to decode recorder TV H.264 streams. Also I do not believe that as time goes by that H.264 will need less CPU/GPU power to decode its content as movie studios and TV service providers will use much higher compression methods for the obvious reasons. Better compression means smaller file size less bandwidth used for the TV service providers, less space used on HDDVD/Blu-Ray devices. On the other hand I do believe that H.264 codec is on its first generation and probably in the future better second and third generation codecs will show up.</p><p>3) For sound I currently use AC3 filter. Haven’t yet found anything better than it.</p><p></p><p>Please have in mind that both NVIDIA PureVideo and CoreAVC are NOT freely available. If you need an all in one free solution you might want to try FFDshow although I wouldn’t recommend it. You might get away with FFDshow MPEG2 build in support but I highly doubt that FFDshow can do a good job with H.264/x264 content.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pannivas, post: 102825, member: 23174"] A very good article although it’s missing a Codec section. No matter if you have high or medium or low end hardware you will still need the best available decoders for the right job (i.e. MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, x264, AC3 sound) Currently HD comes in 2 ways, either from a SAT/Cable broadcast stream or from an HDDVD/Blu-Ray device. Broadcast streams have lower bidrates because providers need to save bandwidth so that they can have more HD channels over one transponder. On the other hand HDDVD and Blu-Ray have higher bidrates. HD content that comes from a broadcast channel it either comes in MPEG2 or H.264 currently only available in EU countries if I am not mistaken. As Tech Geek already mention on his OP H.264 is more resource intensive due to its higher compression methods thus it requires much more powerful hardware than MPEG2. HD content coming from HDDVD or Blu-Ray devices the next generation DVD formats comes in three different codecs. VC-1 which by the way is an MS codec and only used in HDDVD at the moment, MPEG2 and H.264. The first generation HD movies are all encoded with MPEG2 and some VC-1, but recently studios stared using the match newer and better H.264 codec. Again here the same rules for hardware apply. You will need a much more powerful system to decode H.264 HD DVD movies than VC-1 and MPEG2 encoded HD DVD movies. Recent reviews from Anandtech site have shown that even a mid range Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (Currently Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs are the faster Desktop processor in the market) with the latest video cards in the market have difficulties decoding H.264 HDDVD/Blu-Ray movies. See reviews below for more information [url]http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2890[/url] (HD-DVD Playback) [url]http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2886[/url] (Blu-Ray H.264 playback) [url]http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2874[/url] (NVIDIA and ATI HDCP video cards) Please note the following decoders work for me whereas for some others a different solution is preferred. Hardware Specifications CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.4Ghz, 4MB L2 cache) Motherboard: Asus P5B Deluxe. Memory: 1GB of DDR800 Video Card: Currently Gigabyte 6600 will be using LeadTek 7900GS Stock OC soon. Audio: Onboard soundmax (which I hate), waiting for my AuzenTech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS I do not use a Tuner as TV where I live SUCKS. 1) For MPEG2 HD decoding I use NVIDIA’s PureVideo decoder. If you have an NVIDIA 6xxxx or 7xxxx series PureVideo will utilize the hardware acceleration feature which basically uses GPU power to offload some of your CPU load when decoding MPEG2 HD content files, it also gives a much better PQ. Have in mind that this does not support hardware acceleration for VC-1 or H.264 encoded movies. For the two above you will need a 7xxxx series NVIDIA video card with the newer NVIDIA PureVideo HD software, currently included in the latest 7xxxx series Forceware drivers if I am not mistaken. Also have in mind that NVIDIA PureVideo greatly relays on the GPU clock speed. The faster the clock speed of your video card the better job it will do offloading your CPU. 2) H.264 and x264 decoding. I use CoreAVC. Currently the best solution out there and its also multithread and any good Intel/AMD Dual Core CPU should have no problem of decoding 720p/1080i or 1080p H.264/x264 movies. I haven’t yet tested the NVIDIA’s PureVideo HD yet as I am still waiting on my new 7900GS video card. I will give some feedback once I do but I highly doubt that it will be a better solution than CoreAVC at the moment. Check the above reviews from Anandtech site for HDDVD and Blu-Ray H.264 decoding as the hardware needed to decode those are much higher than what you need to decode recorder TV H.264 streams. Also I do not believe that as time goes by that H.264 will need less CPU/GPU power to decode its content as movie studios and TV service providers will use much higher compression methods for the obvious reasons. Better compression means smaller file size less bandwidth used for the TV service providers, less space used on HDDVD/Blu-Ray devices. On the other hand I do believe that H.264 codec is on its first generation and probably in the future better second and third generation codecs will show up. 3) For sound I currently use AC3 filter. Haven’t yet found anything better than it. Please have in mind that both NVIDIA PureVideo and CoreAVC are NOT freely available. If you need an all in one free solution you might want to try FFDshow although I wouldn’t recommend it. You might get away with FFDshow MPEG2 build in support but I highly doubt that FFDshow can do a good job with H.264/x264 content. [/QUOTE]
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