[aleet2600]

ATI and GeForce have MPEG2 hardward decoder. But when you play Divx, can I assume no card out there will help?


I am planning to encode HD into Divx(720p) and play them back. My plasma TV will be 1280x768, so there is no need to encode higher than 720p.


All GeForce4 and ATI Radeon reviews I have seen talks about how fast they perform for games. Should I even other to get a high end card since none of the cards helps Divx playback? Currently I have an old TNT2 and Rage 128 Pro.


Note that when I watch live HD, it will go thru myHD card direct to Plsama. I am only concern about playing back Divx.


I am thinking of GeForce4 MX440 since it is cheap.


Any suggestion would be appreciated.

 

[jamoka]

WM9 might be best for that. Video quality is better than DIVX. You can easily get 2 1/2 hrs 720p on a DVD-R. WM9 has promised HW acceleration from Nvidia and ATI cards soon. But for 1280 X 720, you can get by fine with an Athlon XP1800 or so alone.


Joe

 

[speresh]

Quote:

Originally posted by jamoka WM9 might be best for that. Video quality is better than DIVX. You can easily get 2 1/2 hrs 720p on a DVD-R. WM9 has promised HW acceleration from Nvidia and ATI cards soon. But for 1280 X 720, you can get by fine with an Athlon XP1800 or so alone. Joe

Do you have any info on whether Radeon9000 will support WM9 acceleration?


Sergiy

 

[aleet2600]

jamoka,


Thanks for your info. But before I can find WM9, I have to push those HD files off my Hard drive somehow.

 

[rygy]

 Sigma Designs makes a PCI card called the XCard. Its a hardware based MPEG-4/DIVX decoder that also supports component and s-video as well as composite output. It has a pass through cable to keep a monitor connected.

 

[mklein49]

I don't think that card supports high definition resolutions, ie 720p, so it probably won't be usefull.

 

[rygy]

"The REALmagic Xcard supports interlaced and progressive YPbPr, scalable up to HDTV resolution. For copy-protected DVDs, the output resolution is limited to be 480i, 576i or 480p."


This is a direct text-copy from the website's FAQ's. Before anyone who has not yet read the website replies, GO READ THE WEB SITE! thank you.

 

[trbarry]

They are scalable up to HD res (if not copy protected) but I still don't think the input (file) resolution can be that large. Sigma was talking about another release that would remove this limitation but I wasn't aware they ever did it.


And at this point they are probably more worried that everyone is making unplayable Divx files using GMC, b frames, qpel, etc.


- Tom

 

[Beefcake]

The Xcard is a piece of junk. Don't waste your time with it. The PQ is HORRIBLE!

 

[Blight]

I think athlon 1800 is optemistic, I recommend at least 2200 or for safety, 2500.


You do not need further display card acceleration. Currently, I like the quality of XVID. But DivX 5.5 is soon to be released and the same goes for WM9. Although WM9 is a closed format and I wouldn't touch it.