NV and H.264 acceleration ?

[Geo]

Hi

I have an AGP 6600 GT and I have paid for the Cyberlink supporting H264 decoder. I also tried the trial of the Nero Purevideo supporting decoder.

Unfortunately, on both of them with hardware acceleration turned on, it looks like this:

Also WMV HD hardware acceleration has been non-functional on the AGP 6600 GT since the Forceware 80 series began. The last drivers to support it was 79.xx.

I don't really know how nVidia can claim that the AGP 6600 GT supports WMV HD and H264 decoding when neither of these appear to work. MPEG-2 HD works fine though.

Damn, I can't decide if that's a LeRroy Neiman painting. . or a full-color xray die shot of the world's first "wide" asic.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I don't really know how nVidia can claim that the AGP 6600 GT supports WMV HD and H264 decoding when neither of these appear to work. MPEG-2 HD works fine though.

My AGP 6600GT supports WMV HD fine. Not sure if you guys know but WMP10 needs a patch to use PureDecoder or something. I'll look for it. Basically WMP10 has some issues with Hardware acceleration (or maybe just PureVideo?) where it needs the patch.

Edit: Heres the link..found it off the AVS forums

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;888656

Also, I tried H.264 acceleration (which should be on the newer ForceWare drivers) and I can now play 720p Quicktime videos (I just recently installed the newest 84+ NV Drivers). 1080p is still to much for my AMD64 1.8GHz Venice processor to handle (i'm not OC'ing it). Try out that patch and make sure you have the newest NV Drivers.

 

[Moloch]

My AGP 6600GT supports WMV HD fine. Not sure if you guys know but WMP10 needs a patch to use PureDecoder or something. I'll look for it. Basically WMP10 has some issues with Hardware acceleration (or maybe just PureVideo?) where it needs the patch.

Edit: Heres the link..found it off the AVS forums

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;888656

Also, I tried H.264 acceleration (which should be on the newer ForceWare drivers) and I can now play 720p Quicktime videos (I just recently installed the newest 84+ NV Drivers). 1080p is still to much for my AMD64 1.8GHz Venice processor to handle (i'm not OC'ing it). Try out that patch and make sure you have the newest NV Drivers.

If you don't update media player your nvidia card just doesn't accerate wmv-hd.

 

[sharangad]

nVidia H264

I have kb88565 ( I know this by heart now). WMV HD kills the CPU. THe last drivers this worked for me was 79.xx.

I have an AGP 6600 GT. The PCI-E 6600 Gt doesn't suffer from this problem. From other forums I frequent H264 decoding works perfect as does WMV HD on the PCI-E 6600 GT. 'tis just eh AGP users who're screwed.

Those of you who have working H264 and WMV HD, could you post your specs? ( In particular I want to know whether you have AGP or PCI-E card and what mobo chipset you've got. ).

 

[sharangad]

My AGP 6600GT supports WMV HD fine. Not sure if you guys know but WMP10 needs a patch to use PureDecoder or something. I'll look for it. Basically WMP10 has some issues with Hardware acceleration (or maybe just PureVideo?) where it needs the patch.

Edit: Heres the link..found it off the AVS forums

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;888656

Also, I tried H.264 acceleration (which should be on the newer ForceWare drivers) and I can now play 720p Quicktime videos (I just recently installed the newest 84+ NV Drivers). 1080p is still to much for my AMD64 1.8GHz Venice processor to handle (i'm not OC'ing it). Try out that patch and make sure you have the newest NV Drivers.

BlueTsunami, I have that patch and it makes no difference on drivers newer than 79.xx.

Could you post your CPU utilisation figures for "Step into Liquid 1080p" WMV HD with kb888656 installed?

 

[BlueTsunami]

BlueTsunami, I have that patch and it makes no difference on drivers newer than 79.xx.

Could you post your CPU utilisation figures for "Step into Liquid 1080p" WMV HD with kb888656 installed?

Specs:

CPU: AMD64 3000+ Venice 1.8GHz (Socket 939)
Motherboard: ASRock 939Dual-Sata2
RAM: 2GB
Video: XFX 6600GT 128MB (AGP)
Driver: ForceWare 84+

I'm trying to run "Step inot the Liquid 1080p" and its giving me problems now. I remember before I did a fresh intall on my PC getting it to work (I'm running MCE05' now, before I was running XP Professional). Now its stuttering on me. The whole issue is the settings in WMP10 (Options>Performance>Advance). The settings there have to be setup right to get accelleration to happen.

The weird thing is that I can play 720p Quicktime videos and other 1080p video (I even just bought the T2 Extreme Edition DVD and it ran flawlessly on my system @ 1080p). I was getting around 60%-85% CPU utilization when playing T2@1080p. I'll look into this some more.

 

[sharangad]

Specs:

CPU: AMD64 3000+ Venice 1.8GHz (Socket 939)
Motherboard: ASRock 939Dual-Sata2
RAM: 2GB
Video: XFX 6600GT 128MB (AGP)
Driver: ForceWare 84+

The whole issue is the settings in WMP10 (Options>Performance>Advance). The settings there have to be setup right to get accelleration to happen.

I have the same graphics card as you. The settings are VMR HIgh Quality or VMR Overlay modes. If VMR in unticked you don't get any acceleration. I also seem to recall that KB888656 didn't work with XP MCE, at least it didn't when I tried it. It works in XP Pro for me, with 78.01 and such.

 

[sharangad]

nVidia H264

The T2 WMV HD DVD should play alright as 'tis a lower bitrate to the 1080p trailers on www.wmvhd.com or something.

Someone actually posted about this on www.avsforum.com.

I actually bought T2 extreme edition. The high def version refuses to get a license as I'm outside the US. I tried proxy servers and all but nothing worked.

 

[sharangad]

nVidia H264

Also if you're getting hardware acceleration, there shouldn't be stuttering, just out of sync audio and video.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I also seem to recall that KB888656 didn't work with XP MCE, at least it didn't when I tried it. It works in XP Pro for me, with 78.01 and such.

Ahhh...that would really suck if thats the case.

The high def version refuses to get a license as I'm outside the US. I tried proxy servers and all but nothing worked.

Have you tried using a Transparent US Proxy? ( I got mine from here www.publicproxyservers.com ). I did that (even though I live in the US) and I downloaded the DRM fine (I was having alot of issues beforehand). Also, heres a link that helped me get the T2 Extreme Edition working

http://www.highdefforum.com/archive/index.php/t-3804.html

It should be in one of those posts. A step by step process to getting T2 to play@1080p. It worked for me.

Also if you're getting hardware acceleration, there shouldn't be stuttering, just out of sync audio and video.

Hmmmm...it must be the fact that i'm using WMC05 then. I'll look into this. Its not good of Windows Media Center can't even use Hardware Acceleration. Theres probably a patch floating around.

 

[sharangad]

nVidia H264

Well it might not just be MCE05.

You could try the 78.01 drivers to see if makes a difference, because I'm absolutely certain that WMV HD acceleration doesn't work in any of the 80 series drivers with AGP cards. It works fine with PCI-E 6600 GTs.

The thing to note is that in the release notes for 81.85 they stated:

"Issues Resolved in Version 81.84
This following are changes made and issues resolved since driver version 78.05
and 81.82:
Single GPU Issues Resolved

...

GeForce 6 Series/GeForce FX Series, AGP, Windows XP: Audio
problems occur playing WMV9 files using Windows Media Player
with the Microsoft patch for DirectX VA WMV9 acceleration.

The problem occurred only in VMR mode and not in overlay mode."

They said it works fine overlay mode. But the problem is that there's no hardware acceleration in overlay mode. Basically they force overlays when playing back WMV HD.

This has been the case for all the forceware 80 series drivers.

I was one of the people who moaned about the the audio sync issues, but their fix for it was terrible.

 

[sharangad]

nVidia H264

BlueTsunami,

Could you just try it with FW 78.01 or something? 'tis just a couple of reboots.

 

[BlueTsunami]

BlueTsunami,

Could you just try it with FW 78.01 or something? 'tis just a couple of reboots.

Yep, i'll do that now. I just re installed some drivers (Sound and others) to see if I get results. I'll try the FW 78.01 driver right now.

 

[BlueTsunami]

BlueTsunami,

Could you just try it with FW 78.01 or something? 'tis just a couple of reboots.

Ok sharangad, I just re installed my Vid drivers ( FW 78.01 from www.guru3D.com ). I then played "Step Into Liquid 1080p" and got an average of 65%-78% CPU utilization (formerly 98%-100% with stuttering). No noticable frame dropping but I can clearly see that the sound is lagging.

That did the trick though. Just to make sure...for WMP10 the settings i'm using are...

Video Acceleration = Use High Quality Mode

DVD Video = Non Checked

Drop Frames to Keep AV Sync = Checked

Use Video Smoothing = Checked

 

[sharangad]

nVidia H264

Hi Blue

Thanks for that. So 'tis definitely the newer drivers which don't support WMV HD.

The audio sync issue is only supposed to happen with the trailers and not with actual WMV HD movies. I think if you try out T2:Extreme Editon it should actually work fine.

There seems to be no way to report this to nVidia.

I'm now wishing that I'd invested in a PCI-E mobo and 6600 GT in 2004. Apparently the 6600 GT does WMV HD and H264 HD perfectly on the PCI-E version.

What really pisses me off is that nVidia still claim on this page that the AGP 6600 GT accelerates WMV HD and H264 HD when in actual fact it does neither.

Also they've broken the component output for the 6600 GT in FW80. You need a BIOS update ( according to the release notes ) to make it work again. Unfortunately, XFX doesn't seem to have it on their website.

This is crap.

Thanks for yer help BlueTsunami. I'm really glad to know I'm not the only one.

 

[sharangad]

The really crap thing is that the device capabilities that dxdiag genereates actually reports all this: Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_B ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A

But the WMV9 modes just don't work. they swap to overlay.

 

[JBark]

Thanks for the info about the problem the AGP 6600GT has with WMVHD and H.264. I've got an AGP 6800 GT (ugh!) right now, and was going to buy a 6600GT for my current box and use it as an HTPC. Looks like I won't be doing that anytime soon, either.

Are there any AGP cards in the sub-$200 range where all the hardware decoding actually works? I don't really care what brand it is, I'd just like something that works. Looks like I'd need an x1600 to get 720p?

 

[sharangad]

Thanks for the info about the problem the AGP 6600GT has with WMVHD and H.264. I've got an AGP 6800 GT (ugh!) right now, and was going to buy a 6600GT for my current box and use it as an HTPC. Looks like I won't be doing that anytime soon, either.

Are there any AGP cards in the sub-$200 range where all the hardware decoding actually works? I don't really care what brand it is, I'd just like something that works. Looks like I'd need an x1600 to get 720p?

Well I think it can decode it. In fact the nVidia webpage actually lists the AGP 6600 GT as having the capability as can be seen here http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html.

The NV43 chip can in fact do all that. But the problem is that the AGP version has some issues which nvidia hasn't ironed out yet. I'm seriously considering going fo a socket 754 PCI-E mobo and getting a PCI-E graphics card. All of this functionality works perfectly on PCI-E cards by all accounts. I actually bought this card for its video processing capabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the only area in which I've been let down. I've considered many times switching to an ATi X1600 Pro AGP. But once again I have no idea whether that actually works any better. The 6600 GT is at least a popular card and there are many people who actually own one.

The 6600 GT is good for MPEG-2 though, both SD and HD and all of that works perfectly.

The H264 decoding has some stuff that I can make out and it looks incredibly smooth and the CPU utilisation is quite impressively low. But the problem is the image corruption. I'm hoping that nVidia sort this stuff out. The 84.12 and 84.20 are still beta drivers. There's hope that the final release driver will sort all this stuff out.

I have an AGP 6200 ( based on NV43 and not NV43A) in anothe rbox and for some reason the nVidia control panel in the information page lists it as a PCI-Ex4 graphics card even though 'tis AGP. However, H264 and WMV HD decoding both work really well. I can see a reduction in overall CPU utilisation with an increase in kernel time. So on this card at least, most things work really, though I guess it only works because the drivers think 'tis a PCI-E card ( in an AGP x4 slot ).

As for an AGP card where all this stuff works. I think an ATi X1600 Pro AGP is yer best bet, though I have no experience of it.

 

[JBark]

Thanks for the info.

I think I'll have to go scour the avsforums HTPC forum for a while, see if I can find some x1600 experiences. I'd love to go with a 6600GT, but if nVidia can't iron out the small bugs, I'm gonna have to go with something else.

Hopefully you won't be reading a thread from me in a month or so, entitled "Ugh, problems playing HD content with an x1600pro."

 

[sharangad]

Thanks for the info.

I think I'll have to go scour the avsforums HTPC forum for a while, see if I can find some x1600 experiences. I'd love to go with a 6600GT, but if nVidia can't iron out the small bugs, I'm gonna have to go with something else.

Hopefully you won't be reading a thread from me in a month or so, entitled "Ugh, problems playing HD content with an x1600pro."

LOL! Well if you could keep us updated on your experiences that would be useful. I may well end up getting an X1600 Pro AGP.