Well I managed to get a hold of the new hardware assisted ATI video converter for the x1... series radeon cards.

All I can say is WOW!! My god is this thing sick.

Heres some spec's for you all:

Test set 1:
Original File: DVD quality Mpeg2(720x480) 5:32 312478KB

Conversion 1 using software only via virtualdub/x264:
Default H264 Settings around 13MB/m
Time to convert: 23min 46 secs (approx)
CPU Usage Avg: 100%
Size: 55702KB

Conversion 2 using Avivo Video Converter
Default H264 Settings 29MB/m
Time to convert: 1 min 34 secs
CPU Usage Avg: 80%
Size: 166882KB

Conversion 3 using Avivo Video Converter
Default H264 Settings 14.99MB/m
Time to convert: 1 min 39 secs
CPU Usage Avg: 78%
Size: 87855KB

NOTE: Image sizes were not adjusted (so all the conversions are 720x480). Coversion2 is virtually identical to the original, Conversion1 & 3 both have notable artifacts. All copies would be watchable+

NOTE2: The files are viewable but they do not work in quicktime (im not sure why - could be a fluke), also they do not seem seekable.

Test set 2:

Ok so for those who have never done this let me say I wouldnt even try this normally. It would take in excess of 10hrs to do this conversion.

So here goes - test description:
NOTE: the avivo software will not directly convert transport streams, they must be ported to mpeg2 first!!!
1 HDTV transport stream converted to mpeg2 via HDTVtoMpeg2

Beginning File Specs: 1920x1080 (ie 1080p)
Length: 30 mins
File Size: 3,424,459KB

Post Edit Specs:
Length: 21 mins 51secs
File Size: 2,470,381KB

Setup Avivo to: Standard H264 w/ 43.13MB/m setting
Estimated time: 32minutes
Actual time: 29 mins 5 seconds
File Size: 965,278KB

Output resolution is the same (1920x1080) and it beats the crap out of my cpu to play it. Thus far I have had trouble playing the HD file.

The best playback has been with VLC but as my cpu gets nuked I havent been able to completely check it out. The picture does show pixelation but considering the resolution and size its surprisingly good.


In either case what a great first effort. The software supports the following formats:
VCD
SVCD
Mpeg1
Mpeg2
DVD (with a make it fit to DVD option)
Mpeg4 (divx compatible)
WMV9
H.264
"Portable media center" (whatever this is)
PSP
Ipod

The funny thing is this software apparantly doesnt even use the GPU yet. Thats a few versions ahead... The software will only work on ATI X1000 based cards and will reject any and all others.

For those with X1000's you can get the converter for free here:
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2645&p=5

And remember next Tuesday is 5.13 day (aka Avivo full kick in drivers) - the new drivers include the hardware accelerated h264 codec's for your viewing pleasure.


Have fun
Adam

Adam, for us ignorant folk out here, can you kind of explain what you're telling us?

Sorry Hugh,

Heres a quote from the link below it explains (sort of) whats going on:

"Avivo was pretty much a joke of a launch when the X1000 series came out. There were hardly any tangible improvements due to the new platform that we didn't already have, and its fabled improvements in DVD playback turned
out to be worse than what NVIDIA had already had out for months beforehand; yet, there was promise of more.

ATI promised us H.264 decode acceleration, offloading some of the most CPU intensive tasks for media PCs today onto their brand new GPUs. ATI also alluded to a transcode utility, which would aid in the conversion between video formats and potentially even accelerating it on the GPU as well.

Catalyst 5.13 begins to deliver on some of those promises of more, and while we had pretty much given up on Avivo being any good for DVD playback quality, ATI has also promised improved video playback in the latest version of Catalyst."

What I was referring to is the transcode utility mentioned above, the drivers and other stuff arent due out until the 20th.

The software is by no means perfect - the dvd output(mpeg2) isnt great, the h264 works but isnt as tweakable as would be liked etc. But you cant fault the performance - near realtime encoding of HD mpeg2 transport streams to H264 is basically an impossibility using any enduser computer system. Yet using the program on a 3.4Ghz P4 I was able to encode a 30 minute comedy (How I met your mother) in under 30 minutes to h264.

If you want to read the whole thing - about what is happening come Tuesday (which is when catalyst 5.13 is released) and whats going on with these cards check out: http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2645&p=1

For those folks with HTPC's or working with HDTV transport streams this may very well be "THE" answer to your encoding problems - and a cheap answer at that - x1300's are selling for under $150 and x1600's are sitting @ $250.00

Hope this helps Hugh

Adam

hugh,

Didn't the fine folk at ATI go over the AVIO technology with you when you met with them ?



Crispy

Cracked version that works on ALL cards (since it's not currently GPU-dependent) available!

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1281

Quote from the link above: "this is for the Radeon X1000 and newer series only in conjunction with the new Catalyst 5.13 driver."

So I think it must be only for >X1000 serie of ATI cards.

you could take my word for it or try them out.

http://rapidshare.de/files/9430374/A...r1_12.rar.html

http://nvmyvw.home.comcast.net/avivo1_2.rar

here's a few more alternate downloads. the original was being hosted by elitebastards but they discontinued it for bandwidth reasons.

here's a few screenshots of it on my X800XT (R430) system:





As you've mentioned, it currently isn't GPU hardware-accelerated and the video card lock is simple enough to bypass. Works pretty well on my system.

Sorry I know I am completly off-topic but what is the taskbar you have on the bottom of your desktop. Is it a WinXP theme or it is a custom taskbar?

it's ObjectDock, completely freeware. My icons used are part of the CrystalXP pack I think. I don't remember where I got them, it was ages ago, but google should help.

Failing that, I think the XP>Vista theme I'm using (inspirat Vista) does come bundled with the dock utility as well.

Haha, off topic but I have to say it:

It's his lousy attempt at making Windows look like OS X... *snicker*

http://travisbell.com/misc/os_x_desktop.png

Cheers man

Sorry... I couldn't resist.

ewww why would I want my desktop to look like that...? it's simply an effort to streamline my desktop, and docks are available on other os's besides X.