Can anyone tell me if any (Linux) drivers (it would be nvidia if any) provide hardware acceleration for the graphics cards?

I don't fully recall but I am guessing I once read that Nvidia supports Linux with drivers but not the hardware acceleration part. Is that true?

I am curious what happens if you try to encode video in Linux with a Nvidia 8600 series card (GT or GTS) and whether you can get hardware acceleration to work (probably not?). Anyone know or try (encoding in Linux)?

If anyone tries to encode video in Linux, do you know what the cpu utilization percentage is? If you have an Intel Core 2 Duo or above, what would it be, perhaps?

Thanks for any info. I'm just curious. I use Linux on occasion although I am a noob with it.

I read that ATI is planning Linux drivers for the HD 2xxx series of their graphics cards but there is no indication of anything arriving anytime soon, unfortunately. But, I might go with the ATI in Windows and wait (for support).

Thanks in advance for any info/answers.

MPEG2 acceleration is available for your card via XvMC. Some people report that the software decoders produce a better picture. You'll need a fast processor to display MPEG2 at 1080p. At this time few, if any, CPUs can handle H.264 at 1080p.

The Linux HTPC Howto recommends 2.8GHz+ for HD content (http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/).

From one noob to another...

MPEG2 acceleration is available for your card via XvMC. Some people report that the software decoders produce a better picture. You'll need a fast processor to display MPEG2 at 1080p. At this time few, if any, CPUs can handle H.264 at 1080p.

The Linux HTPC Howto recommends 2.8GHz+ for HD content (http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/).

From one noob to another...

I'm pretty sure people are decoding h.264 at 1080p with some core 2 duos. Search these forums.

I believe the original post was talking about video encoding. If that's really what you wanted to know about, then here are my comments:

I've heard about accelerated encoding in Windows, but I've never seen it in action. I doubt it would be very useful, as it is likely locked to a few proprietary codecs/vendors. So, even if you can accelerate MPEG-2 encoding, you probably have to use (and pay for) a certain company's MPEG-2 encoder. The chances of something like xvid being allowed to take advantage of hardware accelerated encoding seem small.

As for CPU usage, if your system is otherwise idle, any decent video encoder should use 100% of the CPU. If it's not using 100% of the CPU, either the encoder is poorly written, or it's being limited by disk throughput.

[QUOTE=able421;11357428]At this time few, if any, CPUs can handle H.264 at 1080p.
QUOTE]

uh... just overclock a cheap e4300 core 2 duo to 3ghz and you will have no problems if you have over 1gb of ram. I've also got it working great with a e2140 overclocked to 2.8ghz. These are full 1080p h.264 encodes with digital sound. Things should only get better from here as ffmpeg dev teams continue to work with h.264 decoding.

uh... just overclock a cheap e4300 core 2 duo to 3ghz and you will have no problems if you have over 1gb of ram. I've also got it working great with a e2140 overclocked to 2.8ghz. These are full 1080p h.264 encodes with digital sound.

Are you sure? What is the fps? What is the bitrate? Are you sure these aren't movie trailers that aren't true 1920x1080? Were talking Linux right? Because this would be great news for me. I've been reading these and other forums for a while (e.g. Doom9, mythtvtalk, ...), but in several weeks of investigation I haven't been able to find a definitive answer. In other words, would an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane do it? What about a 6000+ Windsor?

no idea on the amd chips. I havn't used any of their dualcores. All I can say is cheap intel chips have a tough time with them at stock and need to be overclocked considerably.
These are full encode 1920x1080 with digital sound I've watched on the systems mentioned earlier and had zero frame rate issues. I'm redoing my frontend myth system in the next few days i'll try to get some testing data in for you when I get everything reinstalled. I moved from a frontend/backend combo to a stand along backend and smaller frontend boxes.
some examples of movies I've personally watched on the e4300 overclocked system with 2gb of ram overclocked to 2.97 ghz.
Each file on average is 10 to 15 GB.

Band of Brothers - mkv with dts
The departed - mkv/h264
Planet Earth series
Sin City
Return of the King EE
and
braveheart, batman begins, fifth element, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, POTC 1 and 2, Time Machine, Matrix Trilogy, U-571, Apocalypto, Hell Boy, Spiderman, Sleepy Hollow

I have about 4 ripped hd discs for testing that I can't watch yet due to E-ac3 digital audio not being demuxable yet in mplayer. Video has been easier to play than the x/h264 by far.

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, I'll probably end up going with an AMD board for the integrated NVIDIA graphics (Linux) and audio. I guess I'll go with the fastest processor and hope for the best. I'll post the results when it's finished.

I am confident that an x2 6000+ should be able to do 1080p h/x264 video playback without issue, though I haven't tried it, only an educated guess based on my research.

I do not own any 1080p-resolution display, and I just bought a new Epson Cinema 400 projector, so I'm committed to 720p for probably another 2 years or so- it's a LOT cheaper to stay behind the tech curve ;).

Be sure to use 800Mhz PC2-6400 RAM.

The X2 6000 costs less than the C2D 6600, and performs as well or better on most benchmarks.

it's a LOT cheaper to stay behind the tech curve ;).


Agreed. I think the issue for me was less the extra $80 and more the added heat, power consumption. If I can't run 1080p@60/H.264, then I might as well spec my machine for quiet and efficient HDTV. I think that's what I'm going to do, and then see what happens with new chips in the future.