Raj are you happy with the image quality.
any tearing?

Man, how many of us AVM20 owners can there be here ;)

Actually I am VERY happy!
I was even more happy when I saw that it easily outperformed the Toshiba player.

Tearing? What is that?
Is is judder / jerky pans? If so....nope....no judder !

Raj are you happy with the image quality.
any tearing?

Paul
(did I remember y'r name right?)

You have an AVM20 too? They were nice machines...I paid a cool 3 grand for them a few years back. Frankly I have never used all the features on it like room peak and subwoofer parametric equalizer.

And now.....they are soon to get outdated. :mad:

Man, how many of us AVM20 owners can there be here ;)

Well, how much is the upgrade? 3k Again? (difference between the 30 and 50)

If so.....I'd rather sell the AVM-20 and get a lexicon.......if and when they come out with DD tru-hd / DTS XXXX stuff!

Actually I find it amazing that it's still current. HD Component switching, DPL IIx, only thing it's lacking vs current products is HDMI, and there's supposed to be an upgrade coming for that.



Not yet, but once the update is out it should be able to.



The player will decode them and pass PCM. Of course you'll need the coming upgrade. Or, I've heard you can trade in the 20 on a 50 for about the same price as the upgrade.

Well, how much is the upgrade? 3k Again? (difference between the 30 and 50)

Rumour is $1700-2000. In one thread it was commented that you could get a 50 for your old 20 + $1800.

If so.....I'd rather sell the AVM-20 and get a lexicon.......if and when they come out with DD tru-hd / DTS XXXX stuff!

I frankly don't care about DTHD or DTS-HD in my processor. Like 1% of discs will allow that functionality.

Got an 8500 (Gigabyte Fanless w/HDCP support), and so far I'm seeing no acceleration.

Using PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra, and HW Acceleration is checked in the Video options. No other codecs installed other than AC3filter and Haali Media splitter.
Newest Nvidia Forceware drivers (158.18). Vista Home premium installed.

720 and 1080p x264 is showing no improvements at all - 30 to 80% cpu usage depending on the resolution. Tried in Media Player 11 and MPC.

I tried firing up graphedit to see if I could discern anything, and it appears that when I drop a x264 file in it it's outputting to a VMR9 renderer. If I understand correctly, in order for PureVideo to work it has to go through EVR, correct?

Any suggestions as to what to try? It's really frustrating to have this installed and see no gains at all from it.

I tried firing up graphedit to see if I could discern anything, and it appears that when I drop a x264 file in it it's outputting to a VMR9 renderer. If I understand correctly, in order for PureVideo to work it has to go through EVR, correct?


Fraid so. WMP11 uses that by default though, and that's EVR.

Is graphedit using the cyberlink AVC decoders as default choice when you drop a mkv file in?

Also try disabling inverse telecine in the drivers, setting 3d to default, doing a thorough cleanse of the drivers (uninstall, safe mode, driver cleaner, reinstall).

Any suggestions as to what to try? It's really frustrating to have this installed and see no gains at all from it.

Format your partition and install only Vista, 158.18 drivers and the latest PowerDVD. People don't realize how deadly all these codecs and drivers we constantly play around with can be. :) Purging the system from time to time and installing only the stuff we need is a must.

Fraid so. WMP11 uses that by default though, and that's EVR.

Is graphedit using the cyberlink AVC decoders as default choice when you drop a mkv file in?

Also try disabling inverse telecine in the drivers, setting 3d to default, doing a thorough cleanse of the drivers (uninstall, safe mode, driver cleaner, reinstall).


Double checked, and yes, when dropping mkvs in graphedit it's showing the cyberlink H264/AVC decoder being used, then outputting to VMR. For some reason it won't touch EVR for output. I know MP11 should be running EVR, but I'm not seeing any difference in CPU usage when using it.

BTW, what do you mean by setting 3d to default in the Nivida drivers. I did find the inverse telecine checkbox (buried at the bottom of a screen).

As for formatting and reinstalling, the only things installed are Vista, the newest Nvidia drivers, Haali and AC3 Filter and PowerDVD. Nothing else has been installed at all on the system, ever. The install is less than a week old.

When dropping the file into GraphEdit it will always show you VMR, that's ok. But your player will use what it uses.
WMP11 for example will still use EVR regardless of what u see in graphedit.
I have an 8500GT and it works with Inverse Telecine ON and 60% edge enhancement enabled...
Actually I have the exact same system/card/drivers as you and get 0% CPU playing MKV in WMP11.
What MKV splitter are you using?

Double checked, and yes, when dropping mkvs in graphedit it's showing the cyberlink H264/AVC decoder being used, then outputting to VMR. For some reason it won't touch EVR for output.

By default graphedit uses VMR7 - have you tried manually connecting EVR?


BTW, what do you mean by setting 3d to default in the Nivida drivers.

Sorry, try this: goto nvidia control panel, click adjust image settings, use my preference: quality.

This shouldn't make a difference, but a lot of people have said it does. No idea why.

I just built a new HTPC w/ an 8500GT running Vista and anything I play via EVR (MPC beta, WMP11) is just a blank green screen but I can hear the audio.

I have the newest PowerDVD installed/patched and am using 158.43 nvidia drivers.

What the heck is going on?

Tragick: does the greenscreen clear if you disable hardware acceleration? I've had that before, with VC1 on a 7300GT when the drivers went to 158.xx.

Beyond that, standard suggestions for possible (although unlikely) solutions: disable inverse telecine and 3D AA/AF in control panel, uninstall and clean registry of PDVD before reinstalling the full version (the *-1 version you get via email from support), uninstall driver, and driverclean in safe mode before reboot and reinstall.

More generally, what's really odd is how people using the exact same combination of drivers/OS/card are reporting all sorts of different problems. Are the cards of different manufacturers perhaps different in some tiny critical way? Is it a motherboard thing? (for ref I'm using an Inno3D 8500GT on a Gigabyte 965p-DS3 3.3)

Hmm...seems the only way to get anything but a the blank/green screen w/ EVR is to go to the "Cyberlink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD7.x)" filter properties and uncheck "Use DxVA" -- doesn't matter what the hardware acceleration is set to in powerdvd itself.
This way it plays but I'm not getting the hw accel that was the reason I bought the 8500GT :(

Haven't tried completely reinstalling pdvd because, well, this was a fresh Vista install from TODAY and i used the *-01.exe install (CyberLink.2911_EVR_Logo_DVD070424-01.exe)...

aftster,
why were you so specific about the '-01.exe'? Is there something wrong with the '-02.exe' that could be found in the download section of the site?
I read somewhere in the thread that an update breaks BD support but I didn't understand which update.

aftster,
why were you so specific about the '-01.exe'? Is there something wrong with the '-02.exe' that could be found in the download section of the site?


Sorry - the 01.exe is the full install, only available from support. The -02.exe is the update on the website, and broke Bluray for me and a few others (although not all), and needs some registry cleaning to install at all in the first place.

Also, even after getting the 02 to install, it seemed to have a lower DVD build number. Again, might not apply to all.

By default graphedit uses VMR7 - have you tried manually connecting EVR?



Sorry, try this: goto nvidia control panel, click adjust image settings, use my preference: quality.

This shouldn't make a difference, but a lot of people have said it does. No idea why.

I did indeed break the VMR and manually connecting EVR. When I do that no video window opens, but I do hear the audio.

Looks like Purevideo HD may need the same voodoo magic as Purevideo classic to work reliably!

I did indeed break the VMR and manually connecting EVR. When I do that no video window opens, but I do hear the audio.

Looks like Purevideo HD may need the same voodoo magic as Purevideo classic to work reliably!

You need the newest version of GraphEdit in order to get an EVR window, otherwise only sound and no video when playing through GraphEdit.

and how/where can one get this version without downloading the whole directx sdk?

I have the BFG 8600. Using the newest power dvd build I get hardware acceloration but I also get...Jaggies! And I am checking the "best quality" box

Anyone have any similar situations that found a solution? Otherwise this card goes back to the store. Dont need no jaggies.

it seems the me that I have not made my point clear. :(

People just connect that HDMI cable to the TV/monitor. That TV has only 2 speakers. So even if you have 8 channel audio coming in high bitrate or whatever......you will still get two channel sound from those crappy TV speakers! :rolleyes:


As for your viewpoint.....I do get it but tell me frankly who is connecting that HDMI connector to a Audio reciever (to have it decode DD tru HD or the equivalent DTS signal)

Heck....those recievers are not even out on the market yet ! :eek:

No but a heck of a lot of us have receivers that have 1.1 or 1.2 hdmi ports and decode the PCM stream in the receiver...

Well,
I get your point, but my processor an Anthem AVM20 does not have a HDMI input.
I just use the s/pdif output of the HTPC to get DD / DTS in the HT.

But upstairs the plasma has only HDMI, no recievers and speakers in that room.


BTW, How many of you have recievers with HDMI?
I wonder ........am I behind or something?

I have a Pioneer Elite 82TSX and a Cheap Sony, the new 810 both have 3 HDMI inputs and handle multichannel PCM... so I think you are missing the boat at this point. HDMI audio is available in recievers costing less than $300 on the street now and probably under $200 soon.

Actually I am VERY happy!
I was even more happy when I saw that it easily outperformed the Toshiba player.

Tearing? What is that?
Is is judder / jerky pans? If so....nope....no judder !

You must have done a bunch of tweaking. My experience with powerdvd ultra and a 7600GT on an an AMD X2 5000+ on XP while stutter free was not even remotely close to the XA2 or an A1 for that matter running DVD or HD DVD... maybe it has matured some in the last month or so.

Right now I don't even use the HTPC. I keep waiting for some compelling story to view it as anything other than an expensive curiosity. I am hoping the latest rev of powerdvd and maybe the H2000 will make it otherwise... right now my attitude is why bother. I have a 1080P DLP that works great with a DVI input.

I have uninstalled/reinstalled forceware drivers, uninstalled/reinstalled powerdvd according to support's instructions, and I still just get a big blank green screen when trying to watch anything with hardware acceleration on.

:(

I recently ordered a ASUS EN8600GT SILENT/HTDP/256M but got a slightly cryptic response back saying that the company currently were trying to get some answers from ASUS about something to do with the card.

Anyone heard anything that would be bad news for the HTPC community?

(I cancelled the order, opting instead to wait till the dust has settled a bit.)

I have the BFG 8600. Using the newest power dvd build I get hardware acceloration but I also get...Jaggies! And I am checking the "best quality" box

Anyone have any similar situations that found a solution? Otherwise this card goes back to the store. Dont need no jaggies.
Same here:
Using EVGA 8500gt.
Using the newest power dvd build I get hardware acceloration but I also get...Jaggies!
Great detailed picture with hardware acceloration turned off.
Returning the card.....will wait for the Ati HD 2600. till then will continue to use the 7600

Correction:
using GIGABYTE GV-NX85T256H GeForce 8500GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP

The jaggies occur usually after the first driver or PowerDVD install, and before you've set the 3D properties in Nvidia control panel to "Quality" and Picture quality in PowerDVD to "Best". YMMV also based on a variety of other codecs, splitters, renderers that you may have on your system, the "pollution" of your registry, etc.
But they have nothing to do with the hardware of the card, you've returned it in vain. If you happen not to get jaggies with the next one, it won't be because you've changed the card.

Not sure if it's mentioned anywere but the 8-series don't have any support in Powerstrip.
So if you want to set custom timings via PS your out of luck.
According to Eintech there reason is that Nvidia don't provide enough information about the new chips to actually create support for the 8-series.

Judging from the responses......it sure looks like I am missing out ! :eek: :o
Thanks for educating me folks. I appreciate you taking time to respond. :)

I went out and read some stuff on this issue.
In short, to get high rez audio from high-def disks, I need:


1. A player which outputs HD audio as multi-channel PCM (via HDMI).
That means only the Stand - alone players.
Any current HTPC can’t do this either.
S/PDIF wont do!


2. A preamp/processor or receiver which has a HDMI input capable of processing HDMI Audio.

Right?




No but a heck of a lot of us have receivers that have 1.1 or 1.2 hdmi ports and decode the PCM stream in the receiver...


I have a Pioneer Elite 82TSX and a Cheap Sony, the new 810 both have 3 HDMI inputs and handle multichannel PCM... so I think you are missing the boat at this point. HDMI audio is available in recievers costing less than $300 on the street now and probably under $200 soon.

Actually I did not do any tweaking !

But Wait !
You are talking about a 7600GT and I am talking about a 8600GTS.....Two very different beasts ! :)

By the way, exactly what was the difference between the HTPC generated image and the Toshiba's???

(lets stick to just the image quality, leave the usability / interface alone, for now)

You must have done a bunch of tweaking. My experience with powerdvd ultra and a 7600GT on an an AMD X2 5000+ on XP while stutter free was not even remotely close to the XA2 or an A1 for that matter running DVD or HD DVD... maybe it has matured some in the last month or so.

Right now I don't even use the HTPC. I keep waiting for some compelling story to view it as anything other than an expensive curiosity. I am hoping the latest rev of powerdvd and maybe the H2000 will make it otherwise... right now my attitude is why bother. I have a 1080P DLP that works great with a DVI input.

The jaggies occur usually after the first driver or PowerDVD install, and before you've set the 3D properties in Nvidia control panel to "Quality" and Picture quality in PowerDVD to "Best". YMMV also based on a variety of other codecs, splitters, renderers that you may have on your system, the "pollution" of your registry, etc.
But they have nothing to do with the hardware of the card, you've returned it in vain. If you happen not to get jaggies with the next one, it won't be because you've changed the card.
I did set the 3D properties in Nvidia control panel to "Quality" and Picture quality in PowerDVD to "Best".
All previous nvidia Drivers were deleted including "nvlddmkm.sys"
hardware acceloration turned on = jaggies
hardware acceloration turned off = sharp detail and no jaggies.
using 110" diag screen with marantz VP11.
i have no idea how big is your screen but the problem is obvious on my 110"

I did set the 3D properties in Nvidia control panel to "Quality" and Picture quality in PowerDVD to "Best".
All previous nvidia Drivers were deleted including "nvlddmkm.sys"
hardware acceloration turned on = jaggies
hardware acceloration turned off = sharp detail and no jaggies.
using 110" diag screen with marantz VP11.
i have no idea how big is your screen but the problem is obvious on my 110"

Mine is 56'', but I don't know what that has to do with the jaggies. They would be obvious even on a 17'' monitor. I had them at one point and never after applying all that you've mentioned and restarting the PC. I see no difference with HW accelleration on and off, except slightly different colours and, of course, CPU usage. If the Gigabyte 8500GT fanless card had hardware issues, we would have heard about them long ago from way too many people here.

Guys, does anybody know if I can profit from the hardware acceleration of the 8500/8600 series in the following scenario
1. one MSI 8600GTS (fanless)
2. one (NV 7xxx) in my secondary PEG slot (16xPCI-E slot with 4x interface on P965 mobo)
3. TV/PJ connected to the 7xxx card so I can use PowerStrip
4. and of course PowerDVD 7.3.xxxx on Vista 32-bit
Does video acceleration work only when playing the video stream on the 8500/8600 card or it's there for the decoder to use it despite the fact that it's not using the same card for output.

Went through all the posts and didn't see anything about the image quality of purevideo with blueray vs hqv blueray player at 1080p

i was wondering if anyone had any review of the image quality rather than the cpu utilization.

Hi everybody.

Just installed a new Vista 64/Core 2 Duo 6600 and added a Gigabyte 8500 GT. I was hoping to connect via component to my CRT Television, which can handle 1080i signals. It's working a part from the fact that I only get 29 or 30 Hertz as possible refresh rates. The video is very choppy on the CRT TV but not on my PC monitor running 85 Hertz.

I'm using 158.45 drivers. Shouldn't 50 or 60 Hertz be available with component out 1920x1080i? Only resolutions below 1024x768 gives options for higher refresh rates. I'm in Europe so using PAL not NTSC.

Any ideas?

Went through all the posts and didn't see anything about the image quality of purevideo with blueray vs hqv blueray player at 1080p

i was wondering if anyone had any review of the image quality rather than the cpu utilization.


Well, I'll jump in. Have a 8800gts640 with an opteron185 oc2.8 (so cpu handles video fine with reclock)

I tried an 8600gts on the same htpc (used vista 32 and latest drivers)

Returned the 8600gts. The 8800gts has better image quality IMHO.

YMMV

Just for the record, I see absolutely no difference in PQ between my 8800gts (gave it to my son) and 8600gts.

There really shouldn't be any difference - at least according to NVidia's diagrams, they use identical hardware and software elements for scaling purposes.

Could anybody with the fanless Gigabyte 8500 GT tell me their GPU temp idle/full load?

Could anybody with the fanless Gigabyte 8500 GT tell me their GPU temp idle/full load?

Idle: 67C
Full Load after Playing an AVC movie: 71C

However, it really depends on the ventilation of your case.

- Rich

Hi everybody.

Just installed a new Vista 64/Core 2 Duo 6600 and added a Gigabyte 8500 GT. I was hoping to connect via component to my CRT Television, which can handle 1080i signals. It's working a part from the fact that I only get 29 or 30 Hertz as possible refresh rates. The video is very choppy on the CRT TV but not on my PC monitor running 85 Hertz.

I'm using 158.45 drivers. Shouldn't 50 or 60 Hertz be available with component out 1920x1080i? Only resolutions below 1024x768 gives options for higher refresh rates. I'm in Europe so using PAL not NTSC.

Any ideas?


Try using the international version of the drivers. They support 50 Hz as well as PAL resolutions on the component output like 576i/576p as a well as 480i/p, 720p and 1080i at 50/60 Hz. At least they used to on the GF 6/7 series.

Could anybody with the fanless Gigabyte 8500 GT tell me their GPU temp idle/full load?


Mine's about 56C Idle and 60C playing AVC. Using a Silverstone LC17 - so the ventilation is pretty good...

Is it possible to get 1080p24 out of these cards?

Thanks,
Chris

Help, do any of these fit in a Silverstone 16M case??? I've read the spec. sheets on the eVGA boards and I don't think they are correct on some of them as to the lenght. If anyone has one in the 16M please let me know what DVD drive you have too.

TIA

Which XP driver version are people using?

Where can you get a beta verion of the forceware drivers for XP that support Purevideo HD?

Which XP driver version are people using?

Where can you get a beta verion of the forceware drivers for XP that support Purevideo HD?

I'm using Forceware 165.01 on XP. Seems to have Purevideo HD support.

bobby1234: where did you get it?

Jorsan

I found references to 165.01 in another thread with links. Here are some links:

Site 1 (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=89885)
Site 2 (http://www.driverheaven.net/windows-xp-linux-nvidia-display-drivers/134673-forceware-165-01-xp-english-only.html)

I do not even have my card yet, but reading through the comments makes me leary of trying this beta, seems to be alot of problems. Of course, many of those people are interested in 3d gaming, not HTPC, so it is hard to get a good read.

Jorsan

I found references to 165.01 in another thread with links. Here are some links:

Site 1 (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=89885)
Site 2 (http://www.driverheaven.net/windows-xp-linux-nvidia-display-drivers/134673-forceware-165-01-xp-english-only.html)

I do not even have my card yet, but reading through the comments makes me leary of trying this beta, seems to be alot of problems. Of course, many of those people are interested in 3d gaming, not HTPC, so it is hard to get a good read.

Just a Quick FYI...

I tried this beta over the weekend & I do not game @ all.

EVERY HD-DVD BD I have Crashed most of the time with BSOD.

The system tested was 2 weeks old 8500 GT XP C2D 2.6 PDVD 7.3 2911 .

has anyone else installed 165.01 (after doing a drivercleaner pro) and found that the nvidia control panel won't open????

:confused:

Thnaks, looks like I have to wait a little bit more.

Yes I also have some BSOD with 165.01 with 8500 GT XP C2D 2.4 PDVD 7.3 2911 codec.

Just a Quick FYI...

I tried this beta over the weekend & I do not game @ all.

EVERY HD-DVD BD I have Crashed most of the time with BSOD.

The system tested was 2 weeks old 8500 GT XP C2D 2.6 PDVD 7.3 2911 .

Crashes here also.

My system: Gigabyte 8500GT, C2D 6600, Win XP SP2, PDVD 7.3 2911

Mine's about 56C Idle and 60C playing AVC. Using a Silverstone LC17 - so the ventilation is pretty good...

I am considering buying this card and have the same case. My concern is the length of card as longer cards do not fit is there are HD's in the middle drive bays.

Will this be a problem and do you have drives in that bay?

Thanks, Mike

Reading everyone's problems with getting the proper resolution on their sets makes me wonder why yall just dont go out and buy the 299 xbox 360 (or better yet a used one for cheap) and use that as an extender for mce. i remembe trying to get 1:1 on my set and getting so fedup w/ it that i was ready to just go get a dvr from my cable co. now if you're not using mce, or you're using a blu-ray drive then i can understand, but for everything else, the 360 is the best out. no worrying about wierd resolutions, no driver problems, constantly updated by ms. ive been using it for over a year and without it i woulda given up on an htpc for a while

Because the Xbox 360 can't decode 90% of the files I have in my PC?
Do you play Xvid/Divx? Do you play TS files? Does it support subtitles?

Yes I also have some BSOD with 165.01 with 8500 GT XP C2D 2.4 PDVD 7.3 2911 codec.
Ditto.

For the 10 or so seconds before XP crashes, it does appear that VC-1 is being accelerated by the new drivers and PowerDVD.

Idle: 67C
Full Load after Playing an AVC movie: 71C

However, it really depends on the ventilation of your case.

- Rich

Wow my Gigabyte 8600GTS fanless card is only at 42C at idle and only a few degrees higher when playing an AVC movie

I read all 19 pages. I am going to buy the Asus En 8600 Gt or the GigaByte GV-NX85T256H 8500GT. I am not a gamer, so should I just buy the GigaByte 8500GT or is there reason I should get the Asus 8600 GT. Just want the best video quality with power HDDVD. Sound like the Asus might run a little cooloer. I am runing XP Proffesional, and I read full support for VC1 for XP is come soon. Is this correct.

I read all 19 pages. I am going to buy the Asus En 8600 Gt or the GigaByte GV-NX85T256H 8500GT. I am not a gamer, so should I just buy the GigaByte 8500GT or is there reason I should get the Asus 8600 GT. Just want the best video quality with power HDDVD. Sound like the Asus might run a little cooloer. I am runing XP Proffesional, and I read full support for VC1 for XP is come soon. Is this correct.

The slower the clock speed, the less heat the card will dissipate into the box, hence less need for ventilation and a quieter box. I find the 8500GT just perfect.

I am considering buying this card and have the same case. My concern is the length of card as longer cards do not fit is there are HD's in the middle drive bays.

Will this be a problem and do you have drives in that bay?

Thanks, Mike

Yeah it seemed like it was going to be kinda tight, so I just moved the hard drive bay to the outer one. I can't tell you for sure if it would still fit cause I moved it before I put the card in. Why not just just do what I did? or are all your hard drive bays full?

Yeah it seemed like it was going to be kinda tight, so I just moved the hard drive bay to the outer one. I can't tell you for sure if it would still fit cause I moved it before I put the card in. Why not just just do what I did? or are all your hard drive bays full?


Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately there are too many drives in there so I will not be able to keep the bay empty. Some of the 8500's look to be a bit shorter in legnth. I may have to go with one of those.

Am I wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that ALL 8500 series Cards had HDCP. I currently have a 7950GT and want to replace it with an 8500 (I dont play any games on my HTPC), but need HDCP. Any help would be appreciated.


Here is the card I am specifically looking at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130089

It doesn't state HDCP, but that may not mean it doesn't have it.

I just dont want to spend the money on a 8600GT\S when I don't need the horsepower or the added heat.

Am I wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that ALL 8500 series Cards had HDCP. I currently have a 7950GT and want to replace it with an 8500 (I dont play any games on my HTPC), but need HDCP. Any help would be appreciated.


No not all 8500 has HDCP. It's optional so only a few has HDCP.

Maybe I've missed it, but has there been a PureVideo release yet for the 8500/8600 cards for use with XP? I thought I read earlier that there was supposed to be something in June...

Quick look at the nvidia site seems to be a no...

Quick look at the nvidia site seems to be a no...
Yeah, I didn't find anything either but wanted to be sure, oh well, I guess we wait some more...

I only check.... 2 or 3 times a day =)

I only check.... 2 or 3 times a day =)


There's a beta 165.01 out on the net which support PureVideo HD on Windows XP. It has some stability issues with VC-1 but the H.264 stuff just works.

Where's it at? I don't see it on nZone [d0t] com.? (this url call restriction is a bit silly)

There's a beta 165.01 out on the net which support PureVideo HD on Windows XP. It has some stability issues with VC-1 but the H.264 stuff just works.
Thanks for the info. I tried a VC-1 with it, and it kept crashing. Good to know I wasn't doing anything wrong.

I don't get very good results with VC-1. CPU usage with PowerDVD playing VC-1 is only slightly less than that of mplayer. (OF course, PowerDVD *does* decode the sound, while mplayer won't due to lack of eac3 support.)

Hi,

Under XP 32 with 165.01, using PowerDVD ULTRA's 7.3*** avc decoder
with DVBViewerPro, CPU usage decreased to %4-6 level from %25-35.
GPU 8600 GTS/by Asus, CPU E 6600
by the way, source was 1920*1080i HD5.
No crash till now for 3 days.

I wonder why I get crashes with my Windows XP 32 and 165.01. Also using DVBViewer Pro and a CPU E 6600 but a Gigabyte 8500 GT. Often crashes occur when closing a H.264 channel. No crashes with EVR in DVBViewer GE in Vista. But I still prefer XP.

Often crashes occur when closing a H.264 channel.

If your DVB card is a Technotrend3200, for 32bitXP, stay with BDA drivers v.4.4.10.18.
Do not use beta one.

I've been following this thread for a couple of weeks, and it seems like many people are having trouble with this series of cards. What I'm not sure about is the generally negative vibe I'm getting is from people running beta drivers in XP, or if it is of people running Vista.

I have a new Vista machine (Dell XPS410 with a Core2Duo e6300 & 2GB RAM) which I use for HTPC in my living room. Right now I've got a 6600GT installed, which does fine, but I'd like more hardware acceleration for h.264 encoded files. I am seriously thinking about the ASUS EN8600GT with the passive cooling, but I don't want to go down a nightmare path when my system is pretty stable and functional now.

Am I wrong about my general impression that driver support for these cards is poor right now under Vista, or would my experience be relatively painless? Or should I wait for the ATI DX10 cards to arrive?

Thanks

I've been following this thread for a couple of weeks, and it seems like many people are having trouble with this series of cards. What I'm not sure about is the generally negative vibe I'm getting is from people running beta drivers in XP, or if it is of people running Vista.

I have a new Vista machine (Dell XPS410 with a Core2Duo e6300 & 2GB RAM) which I use for HTPC in my living room. Right now I've got a 6600GT installed, which does fine, but I'd like more hardware acceleration for h.264 encoded files. I am seriously thinking about the ASUS EN8600GT with the passive cooling, but I don't want to go down a nightmare path when my system is pretty stable and functional now.

Am I wrong about my general impression that driver support for these cards is poor right now under Vista, or would my experience be relatively painless? Or should I wait for the ATI DX10 cards to arrive?

Thanks

I don't use Vista, so can't help there, but waiting on the ATI cards seems wise. They're due out next month and the hardware acceleration promises to be much better than the nVidia 8500/8600 for VC-1, which is what most HD releases are in.

Right now, I have the Asus card you mention and I don't have any problem with VC-1 playback on an overclocked E4300 (3GHZ). However, I plan to get the ATI 2600 as soon as it hits in July.

Right now, I have the Asus card you mention and I don't have any problem with VC-1 playback on an overclocked E4300 (3GHZ). However, I plan to get the ATI 2600 as soon as it hits in July.
I have been following this thread quite closely as well, and I just don't get this part. If you "don't have any problem with VC1 playback" with a "lowly" CPU like the e4300, why would you change to a 2600 (or something else)?? :confused: :confused:

I have been following this thread quite closely as well, and I just don't get this part. If you "don't have any problem with VC1 playback" with a "lowly" CPU like the e4300, why would you change to a 2600 (or something else)?? :confused: :confused:
According to DAAMIT (sorry, AMD/ATI) the UVD is superior to PV2 - maybe not dramatically so but supposed to be. I think they're also supposed to run cooler.?

Hi folks!

I am too sure you will find very useful who is interested in NVidia 8*** series and
ATI mith(?)

Please have a look at this;

especially message 717 and the rest; i suggest not to miss: (http://www.dvbnetwork.eu/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=26&func=view&id=194&catid=2&limit=20&limitstart=60)

You will find current experimantal results and reach benchmarks of THG.

I have been following this thread quite closely as well, and I just don't get this part. If you "don't have any problem with VC1 playback" with a "lowly" CPU like the e4300, why would you change to a 2600 (or something else)?? :confused: :confused:

He isn't changing from a e4300 to an ATI 2600. He's adding a 2600 video card on to his e4300 system.

The ATI 2400 / 2600 series are supposed to have 100% VC1 offload, while the 8500 / 8600 do not.

I have used the 8600GTS on Vista for a few months, it is rock solid.

The only issue is that the drivers dont support custom resolutions.

All the bad vibes are from people trying to get these cards work on XP. Hey ! nVidia told us all that they are not supporting XP in the starting. At this point these drivers (for XP) are just beta versions.........of course they will crash ! :mad:

Dont worry about all this noise at all IF you are using Vista.!


I've been following this thread for a couple of weeks, and it seems like many people are having trouble with this series of cards. What I'm not sure about is the generally negative vibe I'm getting is from people running beta drivers in XP, or if it is of people running Vista.

I have a new Vista machine (Dell XPS410 with a Core2Duo e6300 & 2GB RAM) which I use for HTPC in my living room. Right now I've got a 6600GT installed, which does fine, but I'd like more hardware acceleration for h.264 encoded files. I am seriously thinking about the ASUS EN8600GT with the passive cooling, but I don't want to go down a nightmare path when my system is pretty stable and functional now.

Am I wrong about my general impression that driver support for these cards is poor right now under Vista, or would my experience be relatively painless? Or should I wait for the ATI DX10 cards to arrive?

Thanks

ftp dot asus dot com dot tw/pub/asus/vga/nvidia/

158.28 drivers out, xp purevideo hd support? not sure maybe 160... and up are only ones with it.

According to DAAMIT (sorry, AMD/ATI) the UVD is superior to PV2 - maybe not dramatically so but supposed to be. I think they're also supposed to run cooler.?
Unless that "superiorness" is "dramatic", I don't see the point of getting a new video card which will do the same thing as an existing video card, except drop the CPU usage a little bit more (maybe), and run a little bit cooler (maybe).

CPUs are "designed" to run and run constantly and run constantly even if they are running at 75% usage. Some of the servers in our data center run at 60-70% usage and they have been running like that for YEARS, and constantly, 24x7. I am of the camp that CPUs are meant for using not preserving. By the time you calculate the extended life of a CPU, it's obsolete anyway.

With a well designed and ventilated case, temps are a non issue unless it's a really badly designed case/card.

My practice says 8600 is working very stable even with live 1080i broadcast with just a %4 CPU consumption.
I use XP 32 with beta 165.01 forceware. Decoder is Cyberlink's AVC decoder of PDVD Ultra.(for the time being, only that decoder can run with XP)

He isn't changing from a e4300 to an ATI 2600. He's adding a 2600 video card on to his e4300 system.

The ATI 2400 / 2600 series are supposed to have 100% VC1 offload, while the 8500 / 8600 do not.


Do not believe everything which is just supposed?

On the other hand VC1 is not a cpu killer; the murderer is h264.
And 8500-8600 will figure out him.

On the other hand you can easily watch HD-DVD/BD with a starting level of a Core2Duo even it's a h264.

But do you easily watch a live 1080i broadcast-h264 ?????

And do not forget no VC-1 HDTV broadcast is available right now.

Went through all the posts and didn't see anything about the image quality of purevideo with blueray vs hqv blueray player at 1080p

i was wondering if anyone had any review of the image quality rather than the cpu utilization.


According to http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/08/avivo_vs_purevideo_hd/page7.html, G84/86 seems to fail on all HD HQV test. Not sure if it is a test method issue or video card itself.

According to http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/08/avivo_vs_purevideo_hd/page7.html, G84/86 seems to fail on all HD HQV test.

None of those "tests" matter at all for HD playback.

Do not believe everything which is just supposed?

On the other hand VC1 is not a cpu killer; the murderer is h264.
And 8500-8600 will figure out him.

On the other hand you can easily watch HD-DVD/BD with a starting level of a Core2Duo even it's a h264.

But do you easily watch a live 1080i broadcast-h264 ?????

And do not forget no VC-1 HDTV broadcast is available right now.


All your base are belong to us

All your base are belong to us


My friend!

Just see my first post date here and compare with message 717's date that i gave as a link.

Till now, i have never seen any message which is clear whether 8*** series working with XP 32 solidly; i've seen here just complaints, nothing else.

But if you wanna be my mother; why not?


Thanks, I've learned everything what i know from you. Yes i admit(!!!!) mum.

Am building a new HTPC and just received the components. The graphics card is the Gigabyte 8500GT. It will be a WinXP SP2 machine. No gaming, just standard DVDs and computer stuff. Will feed a Samsung 720P DLP via DVI. Am looking for stability.

What driver version is recommended?

TIA.

PS: Please forgive me if this has been asked/answered in this thread or in other threads.

Am building a new HTPC and just received the components. The graphics card is the Gigabyte 8500GT. It will be a WinXP SP2 machine. No gaming, just standard DVDs and computer stuff. Will feed a Samsung 720P DLP via DVI. Am looking for stability.

What driver version is recommended?

TIA.

PS: Please forgive me if this has been asked/answered in this thread or in other threads.


165.01 (beta)

I hope this is the right forum for asking:

I'm considering getting a 8600GTS for my vista HTPC. Would like to connect it to a Sharp LC-46D82U using HDMI. The thing is, while this is a 1080p TV, as far as PC resolutions are concerned, the manual says it only supports up to 1280X1024 or 1360X768 through HDMI.

So, I gather that a PC set to 1920X1080 does not generate exactly the same signal as a 1080p HDTV signal e.g. from a BD player. However, On NVidia's knowledge base is an article which seems to suggest that the Geforce supports HDTV timing (EIA-861B, I'm told) here's how (http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=36&p_created=1096923831&p_sid=mq35a-Di&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ 9MzcmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R 5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1 TRVRUSU5HIFVQ&p_li=&p_topview=1) .

Is this the method people here use for displaying a 1080p signal? Has anyone done this with a TV that does NOT support 1080p "PC input" through HDMI and managed to get full HD this way?

Thanks in advance :)

I hope this is the right forum for asking:

I'm considering getting a 8600GTS for my vista HTPC. Would like to connect it to a Sharp LC-46D82U using HDMI. The thing is, while this is a 1080p TV, as far as PC resolutions are concerned, the manual says it only supports up to 1280X1024 or 1360X768 through HDMI.

So, I gather that a PC set to 1920X1080 does not generate exactly the same signal as a 1080p HDTV signal e.g. from a BD player. However, On NVidia's knowledge base is an article which seems to suggest that the Geforce supports HDTV timing (EIA-861B, I'm told).

Is this the method people here use for displaying a 1080p signal? Has anyone done this with a TV that does NOT support 1080p "PC input" through HDMI and managed to get full HD this way?

Thanks in advance :)
I just installed an asus en8600gt on my pc and had it displaying full 1080p on my lc-46d62u w/ same pc limitations as yours. I am very pleased with the results.

I hope this is the right forum for asking:

I'm considering getting a 8600GTS for my vista HTPC. Would like to connect it to a Sharp LC-46D82U using HDMI. The thing is, while this is a 1080p TV, as far as PC resolutions are concerned, the manual says it only supports up to 1280X1024 or 1360X768 through HDMI.

So, I gather that a PC set to 1920X1080 does not generate exactly the same signal as a 1080p HDTV signal e.g. from a BD player.

Nah, it's the same. The TV has no idea what's sending the signal, and graphics cards are made to replicate standard HDTV timings. They'd find it pretty difficult to connect if they didn't.

Someone mentioned and linked to that Tom's Hardware article where they performed the HD quality tests on Avivo and Purevideo. The article says they failed every test leading me to believe that image quality, for HD DVD and Blu Ray, are worse on HTPC's than standalone players. I know this is a grequent topic on this forum, but as I only have an HTPC, does anyone have any insight as to why the tests came out the way they did for Toms Hardware?
I thought maybe there were flaws in the testing methodology or set up. Maybe it would have been different if they'd used Theatertek or ffdshow. But, I guess I am wondering if anybody has explanations/comments for the results?

Thanks,

Alex

I know this is a grequent topic on this forum, but as I only have an HTPC, does anyone have any insight as to why the tests came out the way they did for Toms Hardware?


Because those tests are designed to sell hardware products from HQV's maker, not judge image quality.

Most of them are deinterlacing tests, completely irrelevant to non-interlaced material on HD discs. Another test "fails" a product if it doesn't sharpen, despite that being completely pointless on HD - if it needed sharpening, it would be done by the studio in the encode process.

If your DVB card is a Technotrend3200, for 32bitXP, stay with BDA drivers v.4.4.10.18.
Do not use beta one.

This is my impression of the MPEG 2 performance and picture quality of a 8600 GT NVidia

Coming from a 1950 pro and reading all the hype everywhere about these new cards
I decided to give NVidia a last chance and ordered an ASUS 8600 GT HD.

Kind of a dissapointment ... I am on XP, Skystar 2 , DVBViewer pro and after messing around with custom 50 Hz resolutions in 165. driver
I came to the conclusion the 8600 GT in no way matches the MPEG 2 performance of the ATI card.
I used PowerDVD 7.3 codec , DXVA on, tested Overlay and VRM9 (registry edited for DVBviewer)
Picture Quality and motion quality is simply not on par with the ATI card . Some critical tickertapes (ntv or N24) lack not only the incredibly smooth motion of ATI DXVA (vector deinterlacing) ....even the writings are clearly visible of worse quality.
CPU load is pretty much the same for both cards (1- 6 % Overlay- 10 -15 % VMR9 ..
E 6700 @ 3 GHZ) Color reproduction and Banding seems to be slightly improved compared to my last NVIdia fault ..the sad 7600 GT.

This is on an ISF calibrated professional Panasonic PHD Plasma .

Things improved a little bit using EVR in DVBViewer GE (XP installation of Framew.3) but you feel , I am kind of dissapointed about all the 8xxxx hype.

Simply to keep a 4 year old promise of accelerating H. 264 is simply not enough for me. 80 % of my time I am looking @ SD footage .

What I liked about this card is the passive cooler , in a small silverstone case
with one 120 mm YL in- fan... temperature never exceeded 58 degrees Celsius in SD and 76 under full load with 3DMark2006.

best

m

Strange - the improvement in ticker tapes on MPEG2 broadcast was very noticeable for me with the 8500GT. I never could match the TV's interrnal decoder with this in the past, using various 6600/7xxx series models and numerous codecs. It's now absolutely and perfectly smooth, with no hiccups at all. There's no ringing or mpeg mosquito noise either.

Difference maybe is I'm using Vista? Our setups are kinda similar otherwise, with a 3ghz C2D, Skystar2 and DVBviewer here also.

may be ..there is definitely a small improvement with EVR on XP (in the lean DVBviewer GE)

unfortunately Powerstrip is not working with the 8XXX series and setting custom timings
with the 165. control panel is so buggy that I gave up .

So I had to stick with 720p@50 Hz HDMI on the HDPlasma and could not test it with my perfect custom timings and 1:1 @ native resolution.


but this shouldn`t be the problem , I think..

there is only one normal DVB synchrohiccup with tickertapes with the 8600 every now and then in 2 minutes.. but the Nvidia clearly lacks the smooth and fluid motion
of the ATI card set to DXVA , not to forget the better definition of the writings.

If I didn`t mess something up in my config . I am not so enthusiastic about this card in terms of PQ.

best

m

Yeah, I'd guess that's the problem. I run at the native res of my set, and have never needed powerstrip for custom timings either.

Very interesting comments regarding image quality in the last few posts. I picked up a 8500GT last night to replace my x1950pro. I chose to replace the ATI due to a driver bug that wouldn't allow me to do edge to edge, 1080p on my Bravia 40v2500.

I've been using Media Center for years and have been on Vista since January of this year. My viewing is roughly 30% SD, 65% HDTV and 5% DVD. Just last night I started to notice minor differences between the ATI and Nvidia cards. For me, the jury is still out on which is better. Out of the box color fidelity seems slightly better on the ATI but I haven't tweaked anything yet within the Nvidia control panel. Also, I'm not using any special viewers or codecs. All my content is viewed within Vista Media Center.

I came to the conclusion the 8600 GT in no way matches the MPEG 2 performance of the ATI card.


Hi mine!
As you know, you donot need any HA with SD mpeg2. So the best way of displaying mpeg is to use NVidia PureVideo decoder. (anyway PV 1 works in that case)
Another config which is matching with mpeg2 is Elecard mpg decoder+Elecard deinterlace filter combination.

I use Cyberlink avc v.7.3 just for avc HD decoding.

when do the agp nvidia and ati cards come out and what do you think the cost will be?

Hi mine!
As you know, you donot need any HA with SD mpeg2.

You don't need acceleration, but hardware mode is the only way to get motion adaptive deinterlacing. Software mode is fine for DVD obviously, but for interlaced material it'll just do a plain bob, and that's way too blurry.

Most of them are deinterlacing tests, completely irrelevant to non-interlaced material on HD discs.

I view quite a bit of interlaced HD material. Most HD sports, concerts and travel documentary are interlaced, no? Regarding movie, do you know for sure that decoder do 24p-60p instead of 24p-60i-60p for HD DVD stream? Even Toshiba XA2 is going through 24p-60i-60p currently. Per HD DVD spec, it seems not such an easy job to ignore the 3:2 sequence header.

.. Kind of a dissapointment ... I am on XP, Skystar 2 , DVBViewer pro and after messing around with custom 50 Hz resolutions in 165. driver
I came to the conclusion the 8600 GT in no way matches the MPEG 2 performance of the ATI card.
I used PowerDVD 7.3 codec , DXVA on, tested Overlay and VRM9 (registry edited for DVBviewer)
Picture Quality and motion quality is simply not on par with the ATI card .


Disappointed is what I felt with my ATi X1600 Pro. It had terrible motion adaptive noise reduction artefacts and over zealous edge enhancement. The deinterlacing on the ATi X1k is still better than on the Geforce 8 series but watching broadcast SD in MPEG-2 was for me a totally horrible experience on the ATi card.

I view quite a bit of interlaced HD material. Most HD sports, concerts and travel documentary are interlaced, no?


Sports/concerts yeah, travel/documentary stuff will be a mixture. For example, planet earth is shot on film @25p.

To be honest, I'm not convinced motion adaptive on the 8xxx isn't working anyway. If you hardware assist BBC HD video h264 broadcasts (eg football) you seem to get a more detailed pixture than if you switch to software mode and force bob. I'll do some tests next time some sports coverage is on.


Regarding movie, do you know for sure that decoder do 24p-60p instead of 24p-60i-60p for HD DVD stream? Even Toshiba XA2 is going through 24p-60i-60p currently. Per HD DVD spec, it seems not such an easy job to ignore the 3:2 sequence header.

I really can't see why a computer decoder would do that - it's just completely pointless given the whole chain is progressive. HD set top boxes do it simply because a lot of early HDTVs would only accept 1080i inputs.

On the PC you can open the evo/m2ts files and look at the likes of EVR/VMR9 stats to see it's decoding to 24fps and ignoring the 3:2 headers - only at the output stage does it time it to whatever your output refresh rate is (and I often have it at 50hz rather than 60hz, so it's not following the 3:2 there).

Difference maybe is I'm using Vista?
no, I notice the same in MCE2005....

:D

You don't need acceleration, but hardware mode is the only way to get motion adaptive deinterlacing. Software mode is fine for DVD obviously, but for interlaced material it'll just do a plain bob, and that's way too blurry.


right thats the point ... if you have a dvb/s card please switch to a channel with tickertapes and good sd rates in the 4-5 MBit range (N24 here in Europe)

choose DXVA and vector or motion adaptive deinterlacing ..
and in my humble opinion

you see one of the pros of the ATI solution : smoother motion and better PQ

(understand me right :its not a quantum leap but pretty obvious for me)

the second pro for me is PQ over VGA

to get 1:1 @ native resolution for my Panaplasma @50 Hz (exactly 50,014) I have to use Powerstrip and VGA (Pana doesn`t support 50 Hz over DVI (HDMI)

PStrip doesn`t work yet with the 8xxx series and there are rumours it never will
..there are no technical infos about the 8xxx provided by nVidia so far.

But to be fair ... on the other side... looking at a 1080 p H.264 trailer (Pirates i.t.C) in a dvb application (DVBViewer GE) with 6- 9 % CPU load with a passive 8600 GT @ 56 degrees celsius is nothing else than impressive .... I had to install the EVR renderer in XP though to get H.264 DXVA


Disappointed is what I felt with my ATi X1600 Pro. It had terrible motion adaptive noise reduction artefacts and over zealous edge enhancement. The deinterlacing on the ATi X1k is still better than on the Geforce 8 series but watching broadcast SD in MPEG-2 was for me a totally horrible experience on the ATi card.


Right ..pretty terrible card ... look at the comments in the Sapphire fora for example
Got a 1600 hdmi , sent it back immediately . 1950 pro is much better for HTPCs
and you can easiliy modify the bios to get 13 % fan speed .

best

m

I had to install the EVR renderer in XP
got a linky or how-to ???

:confused:

right thats the point ... if you have a dvb/s card ... please switch to a channel with tickertapes and good sd rates in the 4-5 MBit range (N24 here in Europe)



Ahh, I think this might be the problem. Looking at the N24 stream, the decoder is flickering between film and video. Of course, since there's no actual film material there you get hiccups, most noticeable in the ticker. When it's frequently switching you get plain old juddervision as well as deinterlacing errors. You can see the point of switching in the VMR9 stats.

If you have the purevideo decoder, switching it to automatic rather than smart helps a little. The PDVD one isn't built for DVB, and afaik doesn't have this option. However, this only works to a limited degree - N24 actually has film flags in the stream even when it's clearly live interlaced video on screen. Any deinterlacer reading that will try obey it - the only solution is to force video in the decoder.

Have you tried BBC news 24? That's butter smooth for me, and I'm really sensitive to judder, let alone hiccups (they drive me nuts). Constant video, constant 50fps, zero jitter, zero framedrop.

Ahh, I think this might be the problem. Looking at the N24 stream, the decoder is flickering between film and video. Of course, since there's no actual film material there you get hiccups, most noticeable in the ticker. When it's frequently switching you get plain old juddervision as well as deinterlacing errors. You can see the point of switching in the VMR9 stats.

If you have the purevideo decoder, switching it to automatic rather than smart helps a little. The PDVD one isn't built for DVB, and afaik doesn't have this option. However, this only works to a limited degree - N24 actually has film flags in the stream even when it's clearly live interlaced video on screen. Any deinterlacer reading that will try obey it - the only solution is to force video in the decoder.

Have you tried BBC news 24? That's butter smooth for me, and I'm really sensitive to judder, let alone hiccups (they drive me nuts). Constant video, constant 50fps, zero jitter, zero framedrop.

Hi arfster

Now its getting interesting

I mentioned this problem with wrong flags one year ago when I bought my 7600 GT
while using PureVideo codecs ... there the deinterlacer in every mode (not only smart)
switched from film to video .. you still can find it in the avs archives .This happened not only with N 24 , but with some other channels as well and it happened with every Nvidia driver . Now it looks like hardwired incorrect Film/video detection with the new 8xxxxx ... in silicon ...

This problem made me so completely sick that I bought a ATI 1950 pro and guess why ?

problem fixed completely . No judder , smooth panning in every broadcast , much improved PQ over VGA.

Now , NVidias last chance.. my new 8600 GT seem to react slightly different :

you can see - with DXVA on , driver (101.02) , PowerDVD 7.3(2911 codec) - that there is some correct deinterlacing going on even with critical stations

But every two minutes or so scrolling text and the video begins to judder like hell for about 15 seconds , before the motion gets fluid again ....

(and no...its not the short dvb/soundcard resync every now and then )

In favor of NVidia and before I will return to ATI (and this time I swear.. forever) :

@ the moment a.f.a.i.k there is no working NVidia driver out that allows custom resolutions and fine tuning of my panel , believe it or not. Not even 1024x768@50Hz work....
so I use 720 p @50 Hz .
Powerstrip does`nt work with the 8xxx , so I gonna wait if this might be a timing problem ....
Though I have to confess , I hardly doubt it ..
welcome back in the green driverhell

and sorry for my english

best
mine

P.S. Unfortunately (really )no chance for BBC ..I live in the south of Germany

@jimwhite
EVR renderer can be accessed by XP if you install Microsofts NET Framework 3.0

EVR renderer can be accessed by XP if you install Microsofts NET Framework 3.0

Since you use EVR like Griga, have you ever tried Elecard's MC decoder in your system?

If your answer is "yes", have you been able to activate HA?

Reading these last posts, I am amazed how we are willing to spend hundreds of dollars and throw out statements like "Brand A sucks, Brand B is the greatest" just because certain bits in the software drivers are not set the way they should (or set wrongly and by coincidence compensate another thing in an interacting software that is set wrong :)). But, then again, what are we supposed to do? It either works for us or not, we aren't writing the drivers, nor making the hardware. My experience only shows that we should be more restrained when praising or putting down ATI or Nvidia, because their products are very competitive with each other, and in almost every case the problems people have with one or the other are software related.

Since you use EVR like Griga, have you ever tried Elecard's MC decoder in your system?

If your answer is "yes", have you been able to activate HA?

Sorry rica..answer is no

At the moment I try to sort out the problems with one forcewaredriver and one Decoder only
..and this gives me all kind of headaches :) :eek: :eek:
I installed the mainconcept decoder last week and no dxva.

Reading these last posts, I am amazed how we are willing to spend hundreds of dollars and throw out statements like "Brand A sucks, Brand B is the greatest" just because certain bits in the software drivers are not set the way they should (or set wrongly and by coincidence compensate another thing in an interacting software that is set wrong

I have to admit some of your points ...
and sorry about adding fuel into the ATI vs. NVidia fire
a little bit simplified :but would you not sell your brandnew Chrysler if it jerks every 2 minutes for 20 seconds and it jerks after 5 useless blackbox- softwareupgrades and buy a Daimler that doesn`t jerk right out of the box ? There are a lot of people really upset by the bad driver quality of new released GCards.

best
m

a little bit simplified :but would you not sell your brandnew Chrysler if it jerks every 2 minutes for 20 seconds and it jerks after 5 useless blackbox- softwareupgrades and buy a Daimler that doesn`t jerk right out of the box ?

I'm not sure this is a very good parallel. Daimler need to drop their prices by at least 25% for people to even vaguely consider them as alternatives to cars from the Chrylser range. Not exactly an equivalent to the ATI/Nvidia stand-off. :)

And I will not sell my Hemi 300C as long as both of us live. ;)

I'm not sure this is a very good parallel. Daimler need to drop their prices by at least 25% for people to even vaguely consider them as alternatives to cars from the Chrylser range. Not exactly an equivalent to the ATI/Nvidia stand-off. :)

And I will not sell my Hemi 300C as long as both of us live. ;)

you are right ..not a perfect parallel and in first place I didn`t mean "quality" , you see : here 50 miles away from the place where daimler cars are built they are much cheaper , and a hemi 300 would make
you a very fast - but poor man here in Germany with 8 $ a galone. :) :)


___________________________


EDIT : Forceware 101.02 (ASUS installation CD) has HD support in XP ! as well , and no bluescreens ...
PQ is not overwhelming though and keeep in mind you need PDVD 7.3. built 2911

DXVA in WMP 11 : CPU load 1080 p : 6 % (pirates of the c . trailer)

Still a lot of studder and jerkyness with dvb/s channels

best so far in terms of PQ and stabilityi.m.h.o. is 158.22 (no HD support)

best m

UPDATE :
––––––––
NVidia 8600 GT -DVB/S card - DVBViewersoftware

Tested Decoder :
PowerDVD 7.3 (2911)
Mainconcept
Elcard
Nero


With all Decoders and 720p/50 (drivers 101.02 and 158.22 WHQL )

the 8600 GT judders every 2-3 minutes like hell for about 20 seconds with channels that have film and videoflags ..


it seems to me that Nvidia has hardwired all the problems of the PureVideo1 flagreading softwaredecoder in silicon.

A lot of channels here in Germany like N 24, Ntv , Phoenix , NDR a.o. are unwatchable.

best
m

Strange, will test those channels later. Now that I think about it, I had similar sounding problems watching football once on a German channel (DSF?) a while back - was using a 7300 or 6600 then, also with hardware acceleration, and probably using the same purevideo codec.

Sounds increasingly like this is a problem unique to German channels though. I watch a lot of Spanish/French TV as well as UK channels through the HTPC, and have never seen this before. Switch to N24, and it's immediately there - I'd just never noticed because German is incomprehensible to me :-)

Hi arfster

same problem not only in Germany :

http://www.dvbviewer.info/forum/index.php?showtopic=18995&st=0&gopid=140710&#entry140710

with the 8500 GT:


I've tried several drivers, several video codecs (Nvidia 1.02-223 purevideo decoder and Cyberlink 7.3) but I cannot get pass getting jitter video after a while playing a channel in DVBViewer or playing a mpg file in DVBViewer or VLC player for that matter. If I go to a news channel with a news ticker everything initially runs smooth after a while 1-3 minutes sometimes longer then the jitter start and video no longer is rendered smooth. After investigating I suspect some movement in the video or panning triggers it. I then need to change channel or pause/play for it to run smooth again. This happens both in WinXP and Vista.


NEXT :

WITH THE 8600 GTS:

Unfortunately, MPEG2 which is about 99.99% of the current sat coverage, shows hickups in the video, no matter what decoder/renderer combination is used. Best results with BitControl decoder (software bob double rate mode) and renderer set to Unchanged. This shows ticker tapes (CNBC) perfectly smooth for about 2 minutes and then starts juddering/showing hickups. Other channels show hickups in fast movement which is very annoying.
It is really strange that people report the nvidia 8000 series to be perfect for video; I simply cannot get a smooth picture from it. It is as if the frequency isn't exactly 50Hz.
So I put my good old ATI1950 back in, and enjoy smooth picture in mpeg.

Hrrrm, yeah, I see your point. Hard to know how many of these reports are the same issue though - with all the new drivers involved you could have timing issues, incompatibilties with decoders etc. For example, I can replicate a similar-looking problem by playing DVB on a secondary monitor, while using the primary for other stuff (it confuses the dxva element of the card).

Just watching CNBC on Hotbird now, and yes it does the same video/film thing (easy way to check is use purevideo control panel, it tells you which is current). It's even worse than the German channels, literally changing every 2 seconds.

Anyway, I recorded a couple of minutes of this (some serious discussion show), and fired it through graphedit. With Nvidia decoder, film/video/film/video, yuck. With Cyberlink2911 and EVR, video all the way, 50fps, 0 jitter/framedrop. Perfect.

Tried to do the same thing with N24, but irritatingly that's perfect at the moment, they're broadcasting all video-flags now, so there's no jitter/judder to be found :-)


Problem: can't really use cyberlink video decoder in DVBviewer anymore, because the 2911 update broke DXVA with many third party apps and non-EVR. Most of the time you can't start watching a stream as a result, you get a blank screen and audio - this is why I started using the purevideo decoder again. DVBviewer GE supports EVR, but it's quite basic.

So, it looks a bit like the NVidia codec, being a year old, no longer works well with the 8500/8600, perhaps cos that's natively designed for EVR/DXVA2. PDVD itself shifted to EVR in the last update (filename has EVR in it, and you can check with ffdshow), and quite possibly the mpeg2 codec was updated to fit that. Since that patch, it seems like that codec stopped behaving with VMR9 - it works sometimes with acceleration, but rarely. The Cyberlink avc codec no longer works properly with hardware acceleration outside the PDVD app, even with EVR.

How much of this applies to XP 8500/8600, I don't know - Vista uses DXVA2, and DXVA1 codecs like Purevideo go through some sort of DXVA2 real-time translator. XP can use EVR as you mention above, but it's not comparable because it can't do DXVA2.

I think perhaps we should shift this to the DVBviewer forum? There's a case for implementing EVR in DVB pro for AVC purposes, but it seems it's rather needed for mpeg2 now also.

Problem: can't really use cyberlink video decoder in DVBviewer anymore, because the 2911 update broke DXVA with many third party apps and non-EVR. Most of the time you can't start watching a stream as a result, you get a blank screen and audio - this is why I started using the purevideo decoder again. DVBviewer GE supports EVR, but it's quite basic.

Hi arfster and mine!

Arfster, i don't think so. I suppose you loaded Net FrameWork 3.0.
Because, 7.3.2911.0 update doesn't work with NFW 3.0 under XP32(my opinion).
I tried, it did not work when it was loaded, after uninstalling, problem has been fixed.

Mine.

As far as i know, you must be familiar with difficulties. But, this time?

I suggest: donot insist not to use 165.01 with XP. (don't know but i guess)

I use Nvidia, Cyberlink, Elecard for SD broadcast.

First, i suggest to change DVBFilter of DVBViewerPro with the latest version.(30.04.2007) Just unregister the ex-filter and register the new one.
Remove NFW 3. Return to the restore point where everything works well and after load 165.01.

In my practice: (for SD mpg live streams)
NVidia consumpts %1-3 while Cyberlink eats %2-6 of CPU.
On the otherhand, Elecard wants much more: %7-12.(even deinterlace unactivated)
I say, Nvidia and Cyberlink is hard to differ to eachother from the otherone except the CPU utilization.
For avc HD live streams Cyberlink avc dec.7.3*** eats just %4-6.

But i don't like to leave all the job to hardware.

So let me say what way i go while watching a SD stream as if a HD:

Here you will find two files i uploaded to Rapid.
First one recorded "as is" as 720*576 from Eurosport.
Second one recorded "as what you see while watching", i mean recorded live as YUV (but ofcourse since it's too large i encoded after to AVC h264.)

Just compare them:

Source file (http://rapidshare.com/files/36754563/kaynak.mpg.html)

Resized file (http://dosyam.net/?id=c9t7a9)

I like using GraphEdit via Griga's graphSelector with DVBViewerPro and i send them to LCD-TV or LCD PC monitor. I never leave rescaling to hardware so i use such kind of graph.
You can also resize to 1280*720.

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/103/ggghz3.gif


Edit:

or in much cases better one:


http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/5237/resizedht4.gif

Hi arfster and mine!

Arfster, i don't think so. I suppose you loaded Net FrameWork 3.0.



Fraid not, I'm using Vista.


Thanks for the filter suggestion - no luck with it, was worth a try. However, as above the problem lies elsewhere: the 8500/8600 in Vista need EVR with the 2911 PDVD mpeg2 decoder to get hardware features.

Is it really necessary to put these huge screenshots in this thread, especially when they have nothing to do with PureVideo HD-supported software?

Is it really necessary to put these huge screenshots in this thread, especially when they have nothing to do with PureVideo HD-supported software?

Yes i think so; i mean they were huge.

But there is still something to do in the name of getting better watching experience; not for NVidia's sake but for yours.

Maybe it was not the right thread i admit.

But i say; try to read without graphs.
Who knows; you might find out some results or lessons?

thanx a lot rica and arfster
didn´t even realize that the graphs are huge :)

will give it atry this evening

installed framework 3.0 this week to get the EVS renderer under XP because the dvbviewer GE uses it
and it works here , it seems to be the only workaround (as arfster pointed out too) so far to get rid of the periodic jitter of the 8xxxseries with critical broadcasts.

I used PDVD 7.3 (built 2911) DVBViewer pro GE ..EVS ..DXVA ... 158.22 forceware
(some tearing occured).. DXVA is not used with EVR , motion reproduction is terrible, but
no judder, no occasional jitter.

b.t.w. 101.02 has (XP) H.264 support as well and seems not so buggy.

further investigating .. together its getting better … :-)

best

mine

installed framework 3.0 this week to get the EVS renderer under XP because the dvbviewer GE uses it
and it works here , it seems to be the only workaround (as arfster pointed out too) so far to get rid of the periodic jitter of the 8xxxseries with critical broadcasts.

I used PDVD 7.3 (built 2911) DVBViewer pro GE ..EVS ..DXVA ... 158.22 forceware
(some tearing occured)


Interesting - tbh, I didn't expect this to work in XP.

Are you getting hardware acceleration with EVR? (you can check in evr stats under view/filter, if it's 50 you are).

Hi boys!

Check this. (http://www.dvbviewer.info/forum/index.php?showtopic=18995&pid=140803&st=15&#entry140803)

Interesting - tbh, I didn't expect this to work in XP.

Are you getting hardware acceleration with EVR? (you can check in evr stats under view/filter, if it's 50 you are).

No DXVA in XP with the EVR renderer , motion looks likes a 25 p camcorder without vertical filtering ,, but no jitter.

A long long thread!

My question:

I am running a 8800gts with a Intel e4300 core2. This 8600/8500 looks great for h264 decoding when the XP drivers are released.

My question: Has anyone tried out the new cards with this codec installed on their PC ? I am running the coreavc h264 codec and it is simply a lot more efficient than any other I've tried. Runs smoothly on my e4300.

I can't comment on image quality because previous playback attempts without the coreavc have been very jerky.


http://www.coreavc.com/
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=104277

no dxva in core avc and no dxva 2 in core avc a.t.m.

hmm..thank you. So, would I be better off sticking with coreavc+8800gts or should I downgrade the 8800gts to a 8600/8500 GT (passive) and hence using powerdvd etc

In favour of downgrading is the silence :)

hmm..thank you. So, would I be better off sticking with coreavc+8800gts or should I downgrade the 8800gts to a 8600/8500 GT (passive) and hence using powerdvd etc

In favour of downgrading is the silence :)

I sold my 8800GTS and "upgraded" to a 8500GT.
I am running Vista32 and some AVC title now play that did not play smoothly before (Babel). CPU is got from 80 to about 25% on the AMD 4600+.

Image quality looks the same in all codecs.

- Rich

THANK YOU !
for posting this good info..... I was getting the impression that I am the only one enjoying a good pic with the 8600GTS I have!

IMHO all the bad RAP these cards are getting are from people trying to use them on a 6 year old OS...XP! :(

Upgrade guys ! :D


I sold my 8800GTS and "upgraded" to a 8500GT.
I am running Vista32 and some AVC title now play that did not play smoothly before (Babel). CPU is got from 80 to about 25% on the AMD 4600+.

Image quality looks the same in all codecs.

- Rich

I sold my 8800GTS and "upgraded" to a 8500GT.
I am running Vista32 and some AVC title now play that did not play smoothly before (Babel). CPU is got from 80 to about 25% on the AMD 4600+.

Image quality looks the same in all codecs.

- Rich

Thank you indeed. Sadly (or happily in my case), I am still running XP with no plans to upgrade. I do understand that the XP accelerated drivers are due this month.

- Kevin

thats a sweet card.

Thank you indeed. Sadly (or happily in my case), I am still running XP with no plans to upgrade. I do understand that the XP accelerated drivers are due this month.

- Kevin

I have seen other XP posters claim that the Beta drivers for XP on Guru3d.com support hardware acceleration.

- Rich

there are 2 drivers directly from Nvidias driverjunglehell :eek: that support
XP DXVA H.264 ----- 101.02 and 165.01-------- ..but be warned
these are betas and you will experience some kind of strange behaviour.

and vista ; I took the other path and decided to buy the original not the copy :p

Couldn`t be happier with my Mac OSX workstation and FinalCut.

Now I have only one XP machine left to play ...I mean play ...not work ... and after I read
all the comments here and in other fora I decided to stay with XP
One BSOD a week , one BackupImage every 4 weeks is enough, I am not the youngest anymore :D

Hi mine!

I was very sure you were gonna take your laptop while going to Alps :) :)

I was getting the impression that I am the only one enjoying a good pic with the 8600GTS I have!

IMHO all the bad RAP these cards are getting are from people trying to use them on a 6 year old OS...XP! :(

Upgrade guys ! :D

Me too, without upgrading.
Do not forget XP has two patches officially; at least we are happy with our patches. I will buy it after getting patched. (because i'm sure this will happen.)

Hi mine!

I was very sure you were gonna take your laptop while going to Alps :) :)

couldn`t resist .. :D but honestly I do not feel my legs anymore (climbing @2200 m yesterday )

........
Couldn`t be happier with my Mac OSX workstation and FinalCut.

Now I have only one XP machine left to play ...I mean play ...not work ... and after I read all the comments here and in other fora I decided to stay with XP
One BSOD a week , one BackupImage every 4 weeks is enough, I am not the youngest anymore :D


Hmmmmm..... I support a huge network and have not seen a BSoD on XP for years now.

But I have a brother in law who is in the same boat as you. After years of pissing on Windows, he finally moved to Mac. His problem.....installing zillions of apps from all over the internet and then expecting Windows to be fast and stable.

Anyway, he got his mac and started doing the same thing to it.......installing zillions of apps. Well last time I checked....his mac was on the way of behaving the same way.........The lightning fast boots are gone, I have seen a couple of crashes.....of course caused by something else...like a beta version of Parallels!

But I do understand what Mac owners feel about Windows ! ;)

8500GT now $91.12 shipped at Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?ATT=14125062&CMP=AFC-SlickDeals&item=N82E16814125062)

GIGABYTE New 8500GT

Anyone can tell which one is better?
GV-NX85T256HP: comes with DDR3 256MB, running at 600Mhz core clock, 800Mhz memory.
GV-NX85T512HP: comes with DDR2 512MB, running at 600Mhz core clock, 1400Mhz memory.

Finally ive upgraded from my ASUS 7950GT to a shiny new Foxconn 8600GTS (overclocked version)!

Installed a fresh Vista Ultimate version + all latest updates. Installed vista forceware 158.24 and the built 2911 (full version, not upgrade) version of PowerDVD 7.3 and hardware acceleration looks works great out of the box!

Playing HD DVD and Blu-Rays, my CPU (AMD x2 3800+ oc @ 2.4Ghz) uses maximum about 15-18% in AVC-mpeg4 titles and around 20-30% in VC1 titles.

The only huge problem i had was to set the 1280x720 resolution. im using VGA output to my 720p projector and theres absolutely NO WAY to get 720p with this drivers. I think i tested everything. Also, powerstrip doesnt work (due to no custom timings with 8xxx cards).

Finally - I found a solution.
The website laptopvideo2go (google it) has some custom vista/xp drivers made from the official nvidia drivers and other beta drivers. They include custom .INF file that adds support for many other resolutions, especially 720p in 50/59/60/72Hz.

I didnt see any performance difference with those drivers in PowerDVD. Hardware acceleration works great in all modes (mpeg2/AVC/VC1) and now i get 1:1 pixelmapped 720p picture on my projector :)

The only problem i got was some jaggies but after switching off Inverse Telecine and that 3D option in the nvidia control panel - the picture now looks very good and so far i cannot see any visible jaggies.

Now lets hope they also make 48Hz available for 720p because my display cannot run at 72Hz so 60Hz is the only option for HD stuff atm. Well well thats not a huge problem, but i can easily see the that 60Hz really isnt that smooth as 48Hz i had before using Powerstrip and XP.

However, so far im really happy with this card :)

None of the custom vista drivers have 1920x1080 @ 50 Hz right?

Anybody else experienced EVR tearing as seen here http://www.mypicshare.com/lmjed6lapic.html

I've tried turning on and off vertical sync and trilinear filtering but nothing seems to affect it.

Now lets hope they also make 48Hz available for 720p because my display cannot run at 72Hz so 60Hz is the only option for HD stuff atm. Well well thats not a huge problem, but i can easily see the that 60Hz really isnt that smooth as 48Hz i had before using Powerstrip and XP.

:)


if your using vga, use riva tuner 2.01.
just add custom resolutions, choose 48hz or 50 hz it asks you to restart and youll have the res you want ;)

im currently using 864 x 1440 x 50 for pal dvd and 1920 x 1080 x 48hz for hd movies

the refresh rate option doesnt work for dvi though.
im using dvi to vga adapter and its fine

if your using vga, use riva tuner 2.01.
just add custom resolutions, choose 48hz or 50 hz it asks you to restart and youll have the res you want ;)

im currently using 864 x 1440 x 50 for pal dvd and 1920 x 1080 x 48hz for hd movies

the refresh rate option doesnt work for dvi though.
im using dvi to vga adapter and its fine

Does rivatuner only work with VGA, or does it work with DVI also?

So when will those XP drivers be released? Soon right?

So when will those XP drivers be released? Soon right?
I hope so, I thought June was the target date, well, June is starting to get pretty stale.

GIGABYTE New 8500GT

Anyone can tell which one is better?
GV-NX85T256HP: comes with DDR3 256MB, running at 600Mhz core clock, 800Mhz memory.
GV-NX85T512HP: comes with DDR2 512MB, running at 600Mhz core clock, 1400Mhz memory.

LOL

I actually emailed the PR guy at Nvidia and asked him when they would be releasing the XP drivers, he gave me a very polite non-answer, answer...

can't recall the exact quote, but basically "we try to meet and exceed our customer's demands"

translation: when pigs fly....

I actually emailed the PR guy at Nvidia and asked him when they would be releasing the XP drivers, he gave me a very polite non-answer, answer...

can't recall the exact quote, but basically "we try to meet and exceed our customer's demands"

translation: when pigs fly....
With software it is often difficult to come up with a realistic time frame. You can make an estimate and then it can easily end up taking two or three times longer.

If I was with Nvidia I wouldn't give out an expected date either.

If I was with Nvidia I wouldn't give out an expected date either.

Too bad they already did. And it was June. And as mentioned, June is getting awfully stale........

They can't be far off, given the various unofficial betas are almost there. Even if it's not quite ready they'll probably release an official beta near the end of the month to meet their original deadline - that'll probably work for the majority of systems at least.

Does rivatuner only work with VGA, or does it work with DVI also?

i could get resolutions to work with dvi output but i couldnt change the refresh rates

but when i used the dvi to vga adapter i could get both custom res and refresh rates to work with riva

i think its an edid problem with the nvidia drivers with dvi digital output

Our expectations are too much for them; so they seem to be scared to publish even official betas!

September could be considered as good news.

158.**, 96.**,160.**,165.**

In a year:

7600GS
560 Quadro
7950GT
8600GTS which i paid for.

Seasons are lasting!!!

"The Lost" in the jungle of NVidia.

Who is "the lost", who is "the others"?

3 seasons or 6 seasons?

At least 6 seasons for now.

We newer understand who is lost, who is the others.

May be some day; after spending much much money more?

wtf.

wtf.

need decoder.

I have a passive Gigabyte 8500GT but it heats up my raid card that is next to it way to much. I need some suggestions on a quiet fan type of 8600GT(S) models that will dissipate the heat more in my HTPC.

need decoder.

hi rica

will get a good one on friday :D

(ATI HD 2600 pro)

"I have a passive Gigabyte 8500GT but it heats up my raid card that is next to it way to much. I need some suggestions on a quiet fan type of 8600GT(S) models that will dissipate the heat more in my HTPC. "

most of the 8600gt(s) cards with fans, still dump the heat into the case!!

you need better case cooling, probably not a new video card..

i added a undervolted 120mm Nexus case fan over the video card (passively cooled gigabyte 8600gts) to get heat out of a "hot spot" in my case.

hope that helps

hi rica

will get a good one on friday :D

(ATI HD 2600 pro)


Hi mine!

Awaiting your trial reports. Cause it could be a second forest?

yeeepp ...will keep you informed :D

I couldn't be happier with my 8600 gts.. circuitcity had them for 100 bucks after incentives so i bought 2 to upgrade my pcs. Gaming it works fine, for large resolutions (i use a 24" lcd at 1920x1080) and vista desktop it works fine. Much better than my 9800 pro. I typicallyp lay flight sim x (1280x1024) and wow (infrequently, but full rez..) and mostly developing my own stuff in XNA and pushing it to my xbox.

Is anyone else having a problem using the standard 720p resolution and the 8500/8600. I am connected to a Panasonic AE700 over hdmi, and I can only get a picture when the refresh rate is set to 50hz. 60hz causes loss of sync. I have never had a problem with this resolution and any other video card connected to the projector. I reconnected my old 6800 just make sure it, and it came up fine.

I'm using the current 158.x drivers off of nvidia's home page, and have the Gigabyte fanless 8500GT. I was going to try out the 162.15 drivers till guru3d took them down!

Is anyone else having a problem using the standard 720p resolution and the 8500/8600. I am connected to a Panasonic AE700 over hdmi, and I can only get a picture when the refresh rate is set to 50hz. 60hz causes loss of sync. I have never had a problem with this resolution and any other video card connected to the projector. I reconnected my old 6800 just make sure it, and it came up fine.

I'm using the current 158.x drivers off of nvidia's home page, and have the Gigabyte fanless 8500GT. I was going to try out the 162.15 drivers till guru3d took them down!

you are not the only one , in fact we are many..
custom resolutions with the 8500/8600 and my Plasma were completely rotten with every driver I tried (had no problems with my ATI )
even standard VESA timings gave me black screens and often I had to reboot in safe mode , some resolutions magically appeared as 1280x720 50 Hz interlaced !

sold it.


Edit

Sorry to say

just installed a cheapo 50$ HD 2400

installed 7.6 drivers - clicked 720p - clicked 50 Hz ...bingo ..no judder , no jerky movements , perfect bad edit detection , correct VESA timings

main problems gone .... BINGO

When using driver version 101.02 (seemingly the only BSOD-free XP drivers enabling Purevideo HD for these cards), any use of the Nvidia Control Panel screws up deinterlacing for me, i.e., I get interlacing artifacts in the picture.

If I change any of the driver settings with NVtray, things go back to normal.

Anyone else seeing this, too? Fix?

---
PS! Using ASUS EN8600GT Silent.

There is a new driver up for XP (beta). 162.xx. Get in from nVidia website (click the beta drivers link).

There is a new driver up for XP (beta). 162.xx. Get in from nVidia website (click the beta drivers link).


What's frustrating is that I still believe it doesn't allow for hardware acceleration in XP. :mad:

There is a new driver up for XP (beta). 162.xx. Get in from nVidia website (click the beta drivers link).
I am unable to find those beta drivers on the Nvidia website. Could you post a direct link? Thanks.

162.15
Windows XP/2000 32-bit
Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Due to a problem with the v162.15 Windows XP and Windows XP 64-bit Beta drivers, they have been removed for download. We will be replacing these drivers with new fixed drivers shortly.


http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html

So anyways, how about those drivers....

The 162.18 beta driver is available now. I was able to download it.

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html

"PureVideo™ HD support is currently only available on Microsoft Windows Vista for GeForce 8600, 8500 and 8400 GPUs. PureVideo HD support for Windows XP will be available an upcoming driver." :mad:

Shoot. I thought the "next beta" was supposed to be that proverbial "upcoming driver" with PureVideo HD accelleration in HD! Anyone know an ETA? I'm s.o.l. until that support is in there (and it's the whole reason I bought an 8500 card).

Pretty sure nVidia is going to string those of us waiting for the "June" drivers for a lonnggggg time....

Why are you so sure?

"PureVideo™ HD support is currently only available on Microsoft Windows Vista for GeForce 8600, 8500 and 8400 GPUs. PureVideo HD support for Windows XP will be available an upcoming driver." :mad:
Crap, this is getting old...

I seem to recall that there was one Beta driver for XP that contained the PureVideo support. Anyone still have it? Or know what the number was?

I seem to recall that there was one Beta driver for XP that contained the PureVideo support. Anyone still have it? Or know what the number was?

165.01 beta.

165.01 beta.
How stable is it?

How stable is it?

For H.264 it's perfectly stable. It's got problems with VC-1. If I press stop or pause while playing back VC-1 the machine blue-screens. Those were the first blue screens I've had in a long long time. :-(

I've read about the lack of custom resolutions for the 8600 cards, but do the current drivers support 1080p @ 23.976 Hz, which is an industry standard?

Currently I have a 7900 GTO, and 1080p @ 23.976 Hz is denoted as an 861B profile under the Nvidia "advanced timings tab"

I am looking to get a HDCP compatable card (sadly my 7900 is not), and like the look of the 8600 GTS.

Or do Nvidia consider this to be "custom" resolution, because it's not either 50Hz or a 60Hz refresh rate? Or do the cards have check EDID my HDTV for these modes?

Also has anyone tried this card in SLI for the ocasional bit of gaming?

For H.264 it's perfectly stable. It's got problems with VC-1. If I press stop or pause while playing back VC-1 the machine blue-screens. Those were the first blue screens I've had in a long long time. :-(

It's odd that it's stable for some and not for others. I've got a Gigabyte 8500 GT and get blue screens with H.264. PowerDVD 7.3.2911 and 165.01 on freshly installed XPPro SP2.

The 162.18 beta driver is available now. I was able to download it.

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html

And?

Any feedback?

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/162.18/162.18_Win_XP_ForceWare_Release_Notes.pdf

I don't think they added the Purevideo HD support, based on that document.
The list of open issues includes "dropped frames in high-bit rate H264 and VC1".

I am waiting for broadcom. Done with Nvidia, good thing I didn't buy 8600 or 8500

Yeah...thanks nVidia.

I've got ffdshow installed. how do I make sure that it isn't doing the decoding and make sure the vid card is doing it?

And?

Any feedback?


I just received the card yesterday, and so this was the first driver I tried actually. I'm using Windows XP, and can't get it to output 1080p to my Westinghouse LVM-37w3 37" LCD. I've also tried the two previous drivers.

1080p worked fine with HDMI->DVI from IGP on my abit F-I90HD Radeon Xpress 1250 mATX before it died. I was also hoping to offload the processing to an 8600GT since I have a Core 2 Duo E4300. So I exchanged the F-I90HD for a Foxconn G9657MA-8EKRS2H and the PNY 8600GT.

I've been stuggling for hours to get 1080p out of this card, and I'm about to give up. Trying to figure out what to do next. Maybe an ATI card since that brand worked for me before, or an older nVidia. Any suggestions?

Sorry I can't be more helpful with this particular driver.

I use a LVM-37W3 with a 8500GT and Vista and have no trouble with 1920x1080 60Hz

I just received the card yesterday, and so this was the first driver I tried actually. I'm using Windows XP, and can't get it to output 1080p to my Westinghouse LVM-37w3 37" LCD. I've also tried the two previous drivers.

1080p worked fine with HDMI->DVI from IGP on my abit F-I90HD Radeon Xpress 1250 mATX before it died. I was also hoping to offload the processing to an 8600GT since I have a Core 2 Duo E4300. So I exchanged the F-I90HD for a Foxconn G9657MA-8EKRS2H and the PNY 8600GT.

I've been stuggling for hours to get 1080p out of this card, and I'm about to give up. Trying to figure out what to do next. Maybe an ATI card since that brand worked for me before, or an older nVidia. Any suggestions?

Sorry I can't be more helpful with this particular driver.

Thanks!
It's clear it doesn't work.

What i suggest you is to use 165.01.

I have two systems: XP with 165.01 and Vista with 158.44.
Believe or not; i get better result with XP . ( 165.01FW without any crash.)

I advise you to reinstall l XP and use 165.01.

...I advise you to reinstall l XP and use 165.01.

Reinstalling just to ensure no driver residue?
If so, that's seems a bit excessive, don't you think?

Reinstalling just to ensure no driver residue?
If so, that's seems a bit excessive, don't you think?

No, i believe it is the only way to ensure no driver residue.
Because nowadays all of us trying a lot of f????g drivers and even you suppose you cleaned them, there'll still be some residue.
So, it is never excessive in my opinion.

I use a LVM-37W3 with a 8500GT and Vista and have no trouble with 1920x1080 60Hz

I just finished installing Vista, and set it at 1920x1080 60Hz. The TV is still reporting 1920x1080i. Is your TV reporting 1920x1080p when you press the "i" button? If so, what kind of cable are you using? Could it be the cable is my problem? There's nothing left to replace. I'm using a DVI-DVI from Monoprice.

No, i believe it is the only way to ensure no driver residue.
Because nowadays all of us trying a lot of f????g drivers and even you suppose you cleaned them, there'll still be some residue.
So, it is never excessive in my opinion.

...Ever use DriverCleaner Pro?

I just finished installing Vista, and set it at 1920x1080 60Hz. The TV is still reporting 1920x1080i. Is your TV reporting 1920x1080p when you press the "i" button? If so, what kind of cable are you using? Could it be the cable is my problem? There's nothing left to replace. I'm using a DVI-DVI from Monoprice.

I thought 1080p was running at 30Hz... the difference in this instance between I and P was the I was fudging its interlace-ity (?) by doubling its refresh rate over a progressive signal.?

However, I AM talking almost 100% out of my ass at this point.

...Ever use DriverCleaner Pro?

Do you say it works?

Do you say it works?

I'm only trying to be honest and helpful b/c this site has been so helpful to me, but I can personally-attest that up until they began charging for it I used it and was never once even in-doubt that it wasn't doing its job. I'm just got spoiled for using it for so many years when it was freeware.

It's nothing fancy, the guy just does his due diligence and cleans your stuff up. In fact, it will destroy all the drivers NVIDIA/ATI/etc. supply to MS to include in the XP build - so when you reboot it's in a true VGA state, using XP's videocard emulator and not using any 1st/2nd-party driver.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. I just know I say that in shame, knowing I'm too cheap to buy it myself. :o

For those who are interested - http://www.drivercleaner.net

If you want to play with it you may still find its final freeware version (1.5) archived online at sites such as: http://soft.softoogle.com/ap/driver-cleaner-pro-download-1878.shtml - please remember such sites are not officially-sponsoring DriverCleaner and you should always use your antivirus/antispyware utilities to ensure they're not just duping you. Of course that v1.5 is not supposed to clean out any drivers released after June 2006 - I realize it is severely-outdated, but it IS the free version and it gives you an idea what DriverCleaner is about.

Thanks Cobra Commander!

Thanks Cobra Commander!

I hope it helps.

Thanks!
It's clear it doesn't work.

What i suggest you is to use 165.01.

I have two systems: XP with 165.01 and Vista with 158.44.
Believe or not; i get better result with XP . ( 165.01FW without any crash.)

I advise you to reinstall l XP and use 165.01.


Thanks for trying to help. I formatted the partition and re-installed XP. Then I installed 165.01 on the fresh XP installation. 1080p is still not working.

I installed Powerstrip which shows the Westinghouse LVM-37w3 is reporting itself as the wrong model WDE4207. This is an issue that has been brought up in the LCD forum thread for this model of television. I got the advanced timing settings from that thread, but the 8600 GT does not allow custom user-defined resolution settings so the Powerstrip Advanced timing options button is grayed out. I think this explains why the ATI was working for me, and the nvidia is not.

It seems be a bad combination of (1) a television reporting its model and capabilities incorrectly to Windows and (2) a video card that does not allow custom resolution settings. I guess it's time to give up on the 8600 GT. I might try the ATI HD 2400PRO. Any recommendations on another good choice of video card for my situation?

I hope it helps.

Thanks to you too Cobra Commander. I saved that DriverCleaner tool. Maybe it will come it handy later.

..but the 8600 GT does not allow custom user-defined resolution...

I was pretty confident that every NVIDIA card supports custom resolutions - it's been part of their ForceWare drivers since the 9x.xx revisions at least, and was backwards compatible.? Are you sure you're not just viewing your NVIDIA Control Panel in Standard mode, instead of the necessary Advanced mode? I'm running 160's with an 8800 Ultra on my gaming rig and I can do it.

I was pretty confident that every NVIDIA card supports custom resolutions - it's been part of their ForceWare drivers since the 9x.xx revisions at least, and was backwards compatible.? Are you sure you're not just viewing your NVIDIA Control Panel in Standard mode, instead of the necessary Advanced mode? I'm running 160's with an 8800 Ultra on my gaming rig and I can do it.

You're the MAN Cobra Commander! Thanks for helping me out with this. I had tried a custom setting yesterday in the advanced mode, and it didn't work. I forgot to try that today, but it worked this time. I've got 1080p finally.

OK, I have read through this entire thread.

I just installed a 8600 GT in My XP Pro SP2 HTPC, core 2 duo E6600 running at 3.2 GHz.

I have the secondary DVI output connected to Samsung 61 inch 1080P DLP HDTV for viewing HDTV files played from HTPC. I do not play games.

I have the DLP set to "just acan" which should not resize the signal from the computer. I have the resolution on the 8600 set to 1080P ( 1080 at 60Hz) and do not do any resizing, as I want 1 to 1 bit mapping to the display for the best picture quality. I do not care if the desktop is slightly overscanned as I am just playing video from the computer. I have the Nvidia control panel set for "dual view".

The picture quality is great, I can play a 1080 test pattern that is 1 pixel black and then 1 pixel wide white, from normal viewing distance ( 9 feet) it looks like a very even gray picture. When you get up close you can see the alternating black and white vertical stripes. If I change the picture size on the TV or resize in the Nvidia control panel, I get very noticable vertical bands of aliasing artifacts, so I am pretty sure I have it running with 1 to 1 pixel mapping. Great picture.

BUT- I cannot start the video player, usually Media Player classic or Theater Tek on the computer display and then have the video play full screen on the secondary monitor, the DLP. I cannot find ANY setting in the new Nvidia control panel that allows for displaying full screen on the second display. In fact I get NO display on the second monitor unless I drag the player to the second display. This is un-acceptable as it is hard to read the text on the second display, and also due to the overscan it cuts off part of the player settings when set for full screen playback.

Has anyone else noticed this problem?

Does anyone know how to fix this, as the picture quality is outstanding?

How do others play video files on their HTPC?

I have used all the drivers I can find both beta and "hacked" and nothing works to solve this problem. I did use an Nvidia 6600 card earlier and it plays fine on the second monitor, but I want to use the 8600 due to hardware acceleration as I play all kinds of video files.

I did find some info that blocking playback on a second monitor is a DRM requirement for Vista, which is why I have decided to never update this computer to Vista.

HELP

Mike T

What's your primary display if not your DLP? A normal computer LCD monitor?
Why isn't your DLP the lone/primary display being used if this is an HTPC?
This is DVI>HDMI on your secondary DVI output?

If you're using DualView I'm also confused how it's unacceptable you have to drag your media player to the secondary monitor - that is basically how it's always been in DualView - by default a software opens on the primary display and it must be manually resized or moved to secondary display - only when said software closes appropriately within secondary display will Windows 'remember' such and launch it directly to secondary display thereafter. Is it simply not 'remembering' that?

I'm a bit confused because you say there's no setting for fullscreen playback but the very next sentence you say fullscreen playback is cropped because of overscan (which, coincidentally I don't see how 1080p is truly 1:1 if overscan exists... doesn't make sense in my mind... then again I'm not the Home Theater guru most others in here are).

You're the MAN Cobra Commander! Thanks for helping me out with this. I had tried a custom setting yesterday in the advanced mode, and it didn't work. I forgot to try that today, but it worked this time. I've got 1080p finally.

Glad to be able to help someone and hope you enjoy it. I'll be posting some H.264 codec-related playback issues later on in the week... so if you know anything about that, keep an eye out for me, thanks.

I have used all the drivers I can find both beta and "hacked" and nothing works to solve this problem. I did use an Nvidia 6600 card earlier and it plays fine on the second monitor, but I want to use the 8600 due to hardware acceleration as I play all kinds of video files.


You can switch primary/secondary before playback, then it'll play on your DLP since it's now the primary. Have a google for vidres.

Theatertek should be able to play on the secondary by default, it's in the settings. Nothing to do with the card or drivers really, it just needs the software to tell it do that.

Sorry to ask such a noob question, but I did some searches on this and other forums and google, but I thought it is time to post a question.

I built a new HTPC with the following specs:

Asus p5b deluxe w/wifi
e6700 c2d
2 gb Ram
nVidia 8600GTS
Vista Ultimate
HDHR tuner

I am using Vista Media Center (VMC) as my interface with our Panasonic TV. My TV tuner is the HD Homerun and I have all the channels mapped and functioning correctly and everything looks great...especially the HD and no stuttering....yeah!

HOWEVER, when I minimize the video window, it minimizes black. The audio is still playing fine and if I happen to be recording the show, I can close VMC, reopen it, and start the recorded show and it will play in the minimized window just fine. Also, sometimes when I change the channel, without minimizing or maximizing, the screen will go black again.

The same happens if I try to play a ripped movie via MyMovies. Once I minimize or maximize, the window goes black. If I leave it alone and don't change a channel, it plays fine.

The codecs I've tried are nVidia Purevideo (not compatible with Vista, but tried anyway), Nero Video Decoder, and Microsofts MPEG-2 Video Decoder. They all do the same thing.

I am using the 7.15.11.95 dated 3/7/2007 video driver for the video card.

Any thoughts?

Much appreciated.

Thanks for trying to help. I formatted the partition and re-installed XP. Then I installed 165.01 on the fresh XP installation. 1080p is still not working.
*****
It seems be a bad combination of (1) a television reporting its model and capabilities incorrectly to Windows and (2) a video card that does not allow custom resolution settings. I guess it's time to give up on the 8600 GT. I might try the ATI HD 2400PRO. Any recommendations on another good choice of video card for my situation?

You're the MAN Cobra Commander! Thanks for helping me out with this. I had tried a custom setting yesterday in the advanced mode, and it didn't work. I forgot to try that today, but it worked this time. I've got 1080p finally.

seems 165.01 working?

By "working" do you mean it has the Purevideo support so that hardware acceleration of H264 (AVC) content is working?

By "working" do you mean it has the Purevideo support so that hardware acceleration of H264 (AVC) content is working?

Sure.

I use DVBViewerPro for XP(WMR 9-7 or overlay mixer)
and
DVBViewer GE for Vista.(EVR of DX10)

VGA 8600 GTS (doesn't matter 8500 or 8600)
Cyberlink's h264 decoder v.7.3 or over coming with PowerDVD Ultra.
(It is a must for activating PV HD (or PV2))
and 165.01 FW for XP,
158.44 FW for Vista.

I'm using an 8500 under XP with the 165.01 intl drivers and PowerDVD ultra 7.3 and the h264 hardware acceleration is disabled (grayed out) in PowerDVD so my P4 3.6 ghz gasps and cannot decode h264 (AVC) blu ray content.

I'm using an 8500 under XP with the 165.01 intl drivers and PowerDVD ultra 7.3 and the h264 hardware acceleration is disabled (grayed out) in PowerDVD so my P4 3.6 ghz gasps and cannot decode h264 (AVC) blu ray content.

I have a second Pc which has Pentium D 945.
Main machine has 6600 C2D.
Even HA is activated and CPU usage level is almost same, let me say i got jerk and jitter with 945.
But anyway, you should have got HA activated.

I think there is something missing.

HA is activated for non h264 content -- or, at least, CPU usage is VERY LOW and the option is there in Cyberlink with mpeg2 content, but with h264 content, the option is grayed out.

HA is activated for non h264 content -- or, at least, CPU usage is VERY LOW and the option is there in Cyberlink with mpeg2 content, but with h264 content, the option is grayed out.

Are you sure you are using a legal PowerDVD Ultra?

What's your primary display if not your DLP? A normal computer LCD monitor?
Why isn't your DLP the lone/primary display being used if this is an HTPC?
This is DVI>HDMI on your secondary DVI output?

If you're using DualView I'm also confused how it's unacceptable you have to drag your media player to the secondary monitor - that is basically how it's always been in DualView - by default a software opens on the primary display and it must be manually resized or moved to secondary display - only when said software closes appropriately within secondary display will Windows 'remember' such and launch it directly to secondary display thereafter. Is it simply not 'remembering' that?

I'm a bit confused because you say there's no setting for fullscreen playback but the very next sentence you say fullscreen playback is cropped because of overscan (which, coincidentally I don't see how 1080p is truly 1:1 if overscan exists... doesn't make sense in my mind... then again I'm not the Home Theater guru most others in here are).

I have a 19 LCD as my primary display, because I use the computer for recording and editing HDTV while I may watch the cable or play a D-VHS or HD-DVD on the DLP TV. The older Nvidia control panel had a setting to have it play a video full screen on the secondary monitor. This way I can use the computer monitor to search for the file I want to play on a monitor that I can easily read. Up until 3 weeks ago I was using a 4 year old RCA 720 P DLP and it did not do a very good job of making readable text from the computer.

Sorry I was not clear, I can make it play on the DLP by starting the player on the second monitor and setting it for full screen, but then I have nothing on the computer monitor to know play position and if I want to skip to new time position I have to go to the DLP to read and make the setting instead of the much clearer LCD.

Since HDTV's like SDTV's are set by the manufacturer to overscan the display. With a fixed pixel display like a rear projection DLP or LCD when you change the size from the TV remote, you are changing the amount of the 1920X1080 that your are using. If you change the size with your graphics card, then it will tell you the new size something like 1776X1056 so you will not have 1 to 1 pixel mapping as some of the display is not being used. So the TV or graphic card must process the video image to make it the new resolution, and this processing WILL create artifacts because the original content was 1920X1080. There are also issues with changing 720P to 1080 and verse visa. But if I start with 1080 picture content and you keep the computer and the TV at 1080 then you will have the best picture quality.

For a test if you have an LCD computer monitor, just change the resolution to any setting that is not the "native" resolution of the LCD and you will see the display will not be as clear and sharp.

The only way to eliminate the overscan with these rear projection HDTV's is to readjust the optics to resize the projected picture on the screen, any other resizing in the TV or in the computer will reduce the image quality, and after almost 40 years of designing video "stuff" I can get real picky about picture quality.

You can switch primary/secondary before playback, then it'll play on your DLP since it's now the primary. Have a google for vidres.

Theatertek should be able to play on the secondary by default, it's in the settings. Nothing to do with the card or drivers really, it just needs the software to tell it do that.

I had hoped that Theater Tek would play on the second monitor, but it does not unless I tell it to start on the second monitor and then I am back to having to read the file browser on the DLP TV. I went through all the settings without sucess.

Guess I must be the only one using this mode with the 8600 card.

I have been using a ATI X1950 Pro and the drivers on it allow me to play on the second monitor, but the card cannot fill the HDTV screen when running 1080P output so I decided to try the 8600 for its hardware acceleration of H264.

So then somehow the NVIDIA drivers were compensating for the overscan and playing full-screen, but dynamically-adjusting for the 15% (or whatever it is) overscan? I hope I'm not being too dense, just trying to understand, that's all.

Are you sure you are using a legal PowerDVD Ultra?

Bundled with the Blu Ray drive, and then updated on the Cyberlink site. It was NOT a smooth update, though, so I may have a mess.

So then somehow the NVIDIA drivers were compensating for the overscan and playing full-screen, but dynamically-adjusting for the 15% (or whatever it is) overscan? I hope I'm not being too dense, just trying to understand, that's all.

Overscan is usually 2-5% and it is done to save money in the designing and factory alignment during assembly. If there are optical distortion like pincusion or keystone and there was no overscanninmg, then the edges of the image would not be straight, like when you have a 4X3 image on a 16X9 display and there is bending on the vertical edges of the smaller image. Even movie theater projectors have overscanning for the same reasons and that is why the theater screen has flat black borders to absorb the light hitting it.

If you had a picture on your computer that had exactly a 1920 by 1080 resolution and your graphic card did not do any resizing, then the output of the computer would be exactly 1920 by 1080 and if the display did not do any resizing then you would see the image with the best quality and no interpolation errors. But the image would have the edges cut off by the overscan. For video playback this is usually not a problem, if using the display to show your desktop and you could not see the task bar, then it would be a problem. So to make the image smaller on the display the graphic card has to resize the image to something 2-5% smaller than the original 1920 by 1080 image. For the desktop and games this not a problem and is desirable. But if you then try to display the 1920 by 1080 picture, the graphic card has to re-create new pixels in order to display the full picture in a display size that is less that the original 1920 by 1080. This re-creating new pixels is where the image losses come from.

So if playing a video file that starts out as 1920X1080 the graphic card would have to interpolate new pixels to resize the image because the output resolution is no longer 1920X1080 on the graphic card. Thus the video quality suffers somewhat depending how good a job the card does in this resizing. There are test signals that will easily show this distortion, and it depends on the video content as to how noticable it is.

Therefore if you use your HDTV as your only computer display and the display has overscan and you have to resize in the computer so you can see the desktop then when you play high quality video images that are created at the full 1920X1080 you will never seem them in the best quality. The quality may be acceptable to you because you are not as picky or maybe you have never seen the full quality to know what is missing. It also takes some experience to know what to look for and since I know what to look for it bothers me more when I see the distortion. Kind of like seeing the rainbows on the DLP, once you see them it is easy to see them again.

Sorry for the long rant, but it is not easy to explain.

Mike T

Bundled with the Blu Ray drive, and then updated on the Cyberlink site. It was NOT a smooth update, though, so I may have a mess.

Download this free tool and check your h264 decoder is compatible with HD/BD:

Cyberlink BD/HD Advisor (http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/support/bdhd_support/diagnosis.jsp)

I'm considering an upgrade from nvidia 7600GS to 8600GTS, specifically to gain HDCP compliance and eliminate stutter on HD-DVD playback through the latest PowerDVDUltra 7.3 build, without upgrading my 3.0GHz single-core Intel CPU yet. I use Windows XP MCE 2005, and don't want to install Vista.
The things I've read about nvidia's driver support have discouraged me. Any words of wisdom or advice?

I have a 19 LCD as my primary display, because I use the computer for recording and editing HDTV while I may watch the cable or play a D-VHS or HD-DVD on the DLP TV. The older Nvidia control panel had a setting to have it play a video full screen on the secondary monitor. This way I can use the computer monitor to search for the file I want to play on a monitor that I can easily read. Up until 3 weeks ago I was using a 4 year old RCA 720 P DLP and it did not do a very good job of making readable text from the computer.

I'd like to see a player that utilizes dual monitors, so you can have the controls and menu on one monitor with possibly a small windowed video display, and a full screen video display on the other monitor.

As it is now, your options are 1) open the player on one monitor, make the necessary adjustments, and drag the player to the other monitor and switch to fullscreen. 2) use the video mirroring option of your card; this doesn't always work depending on the codec and renderer you're using.

I have the same issue with No Picture on my Panny 700, see below. Can we conclude that this really is a Nvidia driver issue???


Panasonic 700 -> 8600GTS -> HDMI -> Vista

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Issue: No picture on the projector for output 1280x720 in 59Hz and 60Hz (1-1 pix)

1280x720 in 50Hz will give picture but interlaced (dark poor picture)


This must be a general problem for all of you that have/will upgrade to Windows Vista and use DVI/HDMI cable?

I have Nvidia drivers 158.24 and now also the beta drivers 160.x


Some ideas of what more to try?

I'm considering an upgrade from nvidia 7600GS to 8600GTS, specifically to gain HDCP compliance and eliminate stutter on HD-DVD playback through the latest PowerDVDUltra 7.3 build, without upgrading my 3.0GHz single-core Intel CPU yet. I use Windows XP MCE 2005, and don't want to install Vista.
The things I've read about nvidia's driver support have discouraged me. Any words of wisdom or advice?

The only problem with drivers I'm finding are for h264 acceleration. And that's not a codec used on HD-DVD, as far as I can tell. My processor is at 3.6ghz but perhaps you can overclock yours a little, if you need to. Does that mean it will work? No guarantees. But it doesn't sound too fanciful.

I have Nvidia drivers 158.24 and now also the beta drivers 160.x

First of all, clean up all of the ex-drivers and give it a try with 158.45.

I'd like to see a player that utilizes dual monitors, so you can have the controls and menu on one monitor with possibly a small windowed video display, and a full screen video display on the other monitor.

As it is now, your options are 1) open the player on one monitor, make the necessary adjustments, and drag the player to the other monitor and switch to fullscreen. 2) use the video mirroring option of your card; this doesn't always work depending on the codec and renderer you're using.

I have been using video mirroring for about 4 years with my LCD computer and a DLP HDTV for the second monitor. First with a 6600 GT card and then switched to an ATI X1959 Pro for the HDCP function, and it worked great, except the X1950 would not fill the screen on the DLP. This is a known ATI driver issue for over 6 months. So I got a 8600 card for the hardware acceleration and HDCP. Video mirroring does not work. There is no place to enable it in the new Nvidia control panel which is used with the drivers for the 8600 series. If you go into the new control panel help file and select the "video and television" subject, then one of the settings it states you can do is "full screen video mirroring", but that setting is not available.

Since I posted my question about this, I have found some forums which state that it is a requirement for Vista that mirroring be disabled. So I guess either the hardware of the 8500/8600 cards does not support this mode or that Nvidia thought it was such a great idea in Vista that they added this "crippling" to XP.

As you first stated, it makes playing and selecting video files MUCH easier if you can use your computer monitor with a small instance of the player software running, and then when playing starts it plays full screen on the second monitor.

Download this free tool and check your h264 decoder is compatible with HD/BD:

Cyberlink BD/HD Advisor (http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/support/bdhd_support/diagnosis.jsp)

All checks out (though I get a red mark for the nVidia drivers I have) -- which makes sense since they don't fully function.

I'm considering an upgrade from nvidia 7600GS to 8600GTS, specifically to gain HDCP compliance and eliminate stutter on HD-DVD playback through the latest PowerDVDUltra 7.3 build, without upgrading my 3.0GHz single-core Intel CPU yet. I use Windows XP MCE 2005, and don't want to install Vista.
The things I've read about nvidia's driver support have discouraged me. Any words of wisdom or advice?

For VC1 discs, ie most HDDVDs, this won't be an upgrade in performance terms. For h264, you have driver problems at present (Vista fine, XP we're still waiting for new drivers) - but when it works it'll lower CPU to nearly nothing.

Can you play VC1 discs perfectly at present?

Can you play VC1 discs perfectly at present?
Just started using the HTPC for HD-DVD; bought PDVDU7.3 yesterday. The two discs I tried were "DVE HD" and "Polar Express." With DVE, I couldn't get the menus to work properly. With "Polar Express," there was some stuttering.
I'm disappointed to read here that 8600GTS does not even amount to an upgrade over 7600GT, except for h264 which is not yet implemented properly by nvidia drivers in XP.
Am I going to have to wait until I upgrade my CPU to a dual-core? Things I've read suggested 8600GS would enable HD-DVD and bD playback on single-core systems at relatively high clocks (3GHz +).

Just started using the HTPC for HD-DVD; bought PDVDU7.3 yesterday. The two discs I tried were "DVE HD" and "Polar Express." With DVE, I couldn't get the menus to work properly. With "Polar Express," there was some stuttering.
I'm disappointed to read here that 8600GTS does not even amount to an upgrade over 7600GT, except for h264 which is not yet implemented properly by nvidia drivers in XP.
Am I going to have to wait until I upgrade my CPU to a dual-core? Things I've read suggested 8600GS would enable HD-DVD and bD playback on single-core systems at relatively high clocks (3GHz +).

I just got a Pentium D 3.2 GHz dual core for socket 775 for $90 retail with heatsink, not the best dual core but they are getting cheaper. Don't know what CPU's your motherboard supports, but if you can upgrade the CPU only it is much easier than a new system.

Here is a link where they tested the acceleration on different file types.-
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/08/avivo_vs_purevideo_hd/page10.html

Those tests really show how we need the XP drivers with acceleration....

Am I going to have to wait until I upgrade my CPU to a dual-core? Things I've read suggested 8600GS would enable HD-DVD and bD playback on single-core systems at relatively high clocks (3GHz +).

I checked out two different systems:

For both systems RAM was 2GB-800Mhz Corsair and GPU was 8600 GTS
FW for XP 165.01
FW for Vista 158.45
OS XP32 or Vista 32 (tried both)

S1-
PentiumD 945

S2-
C2D E6600

What i saw was more or less the same CPU utilization(%4-6) on both systems.
Maybe it seems not scientific but let me say it is real experimental result:
While playing an h264, it was jerky and saw dropped frames with my 945 system
while there wasn't any problem with C2D.

edit: source file was an h264 live ts.

Just started using the HTPC for HD-DVD; bought PDVDU7.3 yesterday. The two discs I tried were "DVE HD" and "Polar Express." With DVE, I couldn't get the menus to work properly. With "Polar Express," there was some stuttering.
I'm disappointed to read here that 8600GTS does not even amount to an upgrade over 7600GT, except for h264 which is not yet implemented properly by nvidia drivers in XP.
Am I going to have to wait until I upgrade my CPU to a dual-core? Things I've read suggested 8600GS would enable HD-DVD and bD playback on single-core systems at relatively high clocks (3GHz +).


Fraid not - they only upgraded h264 performance. MPEG2 and VC1 use the same hardware routines.

Your possible answer is with the ATI 2400/2600 cards, which in theory fully accelerate h264, vc1 and mpeg2. I say in theory, because the 2400pro I bought doesn't accelerate mpeg2 (pretty sure it's just a Vista driver bug, but still). There are also other problems with vista, and xp from what I read, but when they get the drivers sorted this would work for you. Acceleration of VC1 on these cards leaves the CPU doing next to nothing.

Those tests really show how we need the XP drivers with acceleration....

No, if you look at the graphs carefully you will see that the 8600 card under XP did accelerate the playback and used a lower CPU usage, that did the 8500, but in vista the performance of the 8500 was very close to the 8600.

No, if you look at the graphs carefully you will see that the 8600 card under XP did accelerate the playback and used a lower CPU usage, that did the 8500, but in vista the performance of the 8500 was very close to the 8600.
...which would suggest that the acceleration in XP is already supported for 8600, despite nvidia's note that such support is coming "in an upcoming driver release." What's really going on?

No, if you look at the graphs carefully you will see that the 8600 card under XP did accelerate the playback and used a lower CPU usage, that did the 8500, but in vista the performance of the 8500 was very close to the 8600.

Sorry, I meant for h264. For VC-1, I'm not too concerned (unless it gets worse!) since it seems to work fine already on a modest setup (single core 3.6 ghz).

I just had a problem develop today and I'm not sure why, also hoping it's something I've overlooked.

Anyway, all of a sudden the Nvidia decoders don't seem to be working, I'm also not getting the systray icon anymore.

The below is what I'm getting, looks like an interlace problem, doesn't happen on 720p channels, the below is a 1080i channel.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v637/keenanj/SP32-20070710-132734.gif

Also, the below is the Graphedit layout of the video already stored on the machine, not real familiar with Graphedit yet, but it also seems to indicate that teh Nvidia decoder is not working, or being used anyway. I'm not sure what the "Main Concept MPEG-2 Video Decoder" is but it appears that it's being used instead of the Nvidia decoder.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v637/keenanj/SP32-20070710-133217.gif



Looking for some help, thanks.

<edit> I think I fixed it, somehow the decoder being used in SageTV got reset to the default, which is that Media Concept noted above, switched it to Nvidia and it seems to be okay now.

Still don't know what's happened to my systray icon..

Sounds like you've installed those codecs, or some app you've installed has.

Google&download radlight filter manager, it allows you to set priorities for different decoders. Once you've raise Nvidia's above mainconcept, test in graphedit to see if it's the new default, and you should be donee.

Sounds like you've installed those codecs, or some app you've installed has.

Google&download radlight filter manager, it allows you to set priorities for different decoders. Once you've raise Nvidia's above mainconcept, test in graphedit to see if it's the new default, and you should be donee.
Thanks, yes, you're probably right about some app loading them as I haven't changed anything else.

I'll try the radlight filter manager, in fact I think I already have it. :)

@keenan

Another way:

download "directshow filter manager" (http://www.softella.com/dsfm/index.en.htm)

You will find out MainConcept mpeg decoder in the dsfilters list.
(it will be most probably mcdsmpeg.ax.)

After choosing it, just click to "remove selected filter"

Whenever you want it back, click "register new filter"

Thanks, that looks like what I used before as the below is not familiar. I'm guessing the highlighted is the desired selection?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v637/keenanj/SP32-20070710-150020.gif

I'm looking for information on advanced configuration of Nvidia ForceWare drivers. I need to be able to turn off video processing capabilities such as deinterlacing, inverse telecine (cadence detection/processing), etc. so as to allow an external video processor to perform some of these functions.

Does anyone have any information on how to perform advanced configuration with Nvidia cards?

I'm using an MSI 8600GT.

I suggest 8500GT/8600GT for HDTV content because you can get one with passive heatsink easily. There is no need to get 8800 at all if you don't play game and I don't think that you can get 8800 with passive heatsink.

In addition, many good software player doesn't seem to use hardware accelaration right now. I am using C2D 4300 overclocked to 3.0G and 8500GT. When I use BS PLayer for VC-1 encoded HD content, my CPU utilization is about 60%. When I use PDVD for the same content my CPU is running at 20%.

In addition I thought the 8800 does not fully-support PureVideo 2.?