Nvidia Lies All the Time

[russo121]

At http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2238&p=2 we found this:
"...This "Video Processor" was composed of more than 20 million transistors and NVIDIA was proud to announce that they put more transistors into NV40's Video Processor than they did in the entire original GeForce 256 chip itself. NVIDIA promised quite a bit with the Video Processor. They promised full hardware accelerated MPEG1/2 and WMV9 encoding and decoding at 1080i resolutions..."
"...take advantage of the processor 2 weeks after the launch of the GeForce 6800 Ultra. We even pressured NVIDIA to work on getting support for the Video Processor in the DiVX codec, since it's quite popular with our readers. The launch came and went, as did the two weeks with nothing from NVIDIA...."
"...The Video Processor (soon to receive a true marketing name) on the NV40 was somewhat broken, although it featured MPEG 2 decode acceleration. Apparently, support for WMV9 decode acceleration was not up to par with what NVIDIA had hoped for. As of the publication of this article, NVIDIA still has not answered our questions of whether or not there is any hardware encoding acceleration as was originally promised with NV40. So, the feature set of the Video Processor on NV40 (the GeForce 6800) was incomplete, only in its support for WMV9 acceleration (arguably the most important feature of it). .."

Take your own conclusions... The same sh*t company! Promises, only promises and cheats

 

[digitalwanderer]

http://www.elitebastards.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7321&highlight=

The guys at 3D Center have had a chat with nVidia's Darryl Still, from nVidia Europe's developer relations group, regarding their "The Way It's Meant To Be Played" campaign.

3DCenter: The "The Way It's Meant To Be Played" logo can be found on many a game box. From time to time, voices are raised claiming the sticker is nothing but paid advertising space. Does nVidia really have to pay for placing the logo, quite apart from developers support?

Darryl Still: Let me be very clear. This could not be further from the truth, and you only have to see whose voices it is being raised to see how very transparent those claims are. Not one dollar will change hands between either side in an agreement on a title for that title to be included in the "The Way Its Meant To Be Played" program.

"The Way its Meant to be Played" is a program that spans the entire lifecycle of a piece of software. We engage with the developers as early as possible to guide and aide them through the process of optimisation and compatibility of their code, this consultation continues right until the code masters (and beyond into patches). We have an entire test lab dedicated to giving them a full in depth QA (Quality Assurance - Ed.) report on every build they submit to us. We can also aid them to find the right publisher for their title if necessary.

You can read the entire interview here.

Not one dollar will change hands between either side in an agreement on a title for that title to be included in the "The Way Its Meant To Be Played" program.

You have to read it carefully. There is a lot of truth in it.

Not one dollar will change hands between either side

Yep, it is not worth thier time to only put in one dollar.


in an agreement on a title for that title to be included in the "The Way Its Meant To Be Played" program.

Ahhh. You see, there is a separate agreement in place long before the above program comes into play. The above is only accomplished once it has been determined there is marketing benefit.

Lots of truth,..in a sideways sort of way.

 

[PatrickL]

Where is the cheat?

I am sure you can imagine a more constructive title for your thread

 

[russo121]

Where is the cheat?

I am sure you can imagine a more constructive title for your thread

You can found at fx5xxx line..... not enought?

More constructive title? Maybe this one "The way it's meant to be theoretically working!"

 

[PatrickL]

That would be a better title yes

 

[digitalwanderer]

You can found at fx5xxx line..... not enought?

More constructive title? Maybe this one "The way it's meant to be theoretically working!"

C'mon, the FX line is like so last year!

I can't keep up me moral outrage that long, I let it go a bit when they retired the product line.

However, hearing their PR team say they don't give developers anything to be part of the TWIMTBP program does strike me as stretching the truth a bit....and it's fresher.

 

[JoshMST]

Hmm, somewhat reminiscent of S3 and their Savage 2000 which featured "Hardware T&L", when in fact that part was actually broken on every chip that made it out of the fab.

If I were running the show at NVIDIA I also would have made the decision to go with the current NV40 and fix the video portion in a later product. They had their back against the wall, and they needed the NV40 to start winning back market and mind share for the Holiday buying season that is coming up.

Calling this a "lie" may be stretching it, but I think that NV would have been better off not even mentioning the video portion of the NV40, and done a big introduction with it on the GeForce 6600. Poor marketing decisions are not always "lies".

 

[russo121]

You can found at fx5xxx line..... not enought?

More constructive title? Maybe this one "The way it's meant to be theoretically working!"

C'mon, the FX line is like so last year!

I can't keep up me moral outrage that long, I let it go a bit when they retired the product line.

However, hearing their PR team say they don't give developers anything to be part of the TWIMTBP program does strike me as stretching the truth a bit....and it's fresher.

Hi DW, are you sure Darryl Still is not the postman (I'm joking)?

 

[russo121]

Calling this a "lie" may be stretching it, but I think that NV would have been better off not even mentioning the video portion of the NV40, and done a big introduction with it on the GeForce 6600. Poor marketing decisions are not always "lies".

I agree with you, but having a video encoder inside capable of mpeg4 it's a big selling point. Don't forget Ati has it's Theater chip that must be added to a card with a rxxx core. Nvidia says that has a one chip solution taking down costs (probably) and their solution being cheaper.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I'm a tad confused Russo, is this on the FX line only or does this apply to the 6800 series too?

If it includes the 6800 series, I do believe I owe you an apology.

 

[Farid]

However, hearing their PR team say they don't give developers anything to be part of the TWIMTBP program does strike me as stretching the truth a bit....and it's fresher.

This is not a lie, the TWIMTBP program is targetted in almost every case to publishers, not developers.

I'm a tad confused Russo, is this on the FX line only or does this apply to the 6800 series too?

If it includes the 6800 series, I do believe I owe you an apology.

It's only on 6800 serie, the hardware video decoding is partially broken, and the encoding part seems to be totally broken.
Still, the title and the first post of this topic, reminds me of the bad ol' days...

 

[russo121]

Just to add IMO:
At Tomshardware http://www.tomshardware.com/column/20041011/index.html


"...Often the product's drivers are not ready, special editions or in beta stage and testers are struggling to keep up with last minute updates. Almost every instance results in what we now believe to be a disservice to the consumer.

Today, we announce that we are not going to play that game again.
It is a disservice to our readers to rush testing just because a vendor wants to get a big PR launch.
It is a disservice to our readers to constantly deal with last minute, rushed products that may have little to do with finally shipping products -
It is a disservice to our readers to constantly deal with products weeks or months before the products become available to the market.
It is a disservice to our readers to cave in to the pressure that comes from the expectation by vendors that every online review will appear on a single day giving them a big bang opening day.
NVIDIA and ATI have a right to pursue their own PR strategies, but the back-to-back launches and launch day competition is getting ridiculous.

It does not make one company better than the other.
It does not make for better products.
It does not make for objective reporting.
It does not make for better product availability ..."

 

[PatrickL]

That's nice until you remember that nothing is forcing theses sites to publish their reviews as soon as the NDA lift off.

 

[Guden Oden]

I agree with you, but having a video encoder inside capable of mpeg4 it's a big selling point. Don't forget Ati has it's Theater chip that must be added to a card with a rxxx core. Nvidia says that has a one chip solution taking down costs (probably) and their solution being cheaper.

The ATi theater chip contains the analog/digital ADC/DACs and audio/video codecs to convert to and from analog composite/S-video (and if there is a TV tuner, RF signal). Video (de)compression is done on-chip using pixel shaders, that fuction does not need anything from the theater chip.

 

[hoom]

I'd guess they discovered that a 2+ ghz CPU decodes/encodes faster than a 400mhz dedicated chip.
Or the chip is broken.

But in terms of lies, its kinda like Trueform 2.0...

 

[Dave Baumann]

The ATi theater chip contains the analog/digital ADC/DACs and audio/video codecs to convert to and from analog composite/S-video (and if there is a TV tuner, RF signal).

The recently announced Theater 550 PRO is a full encode solution. I assume this is what he was talking about.

Video (de)compression is done on-chip using pixel shaders, that fuction does not need anything from the theater chip.

There is still specific hardware for elements such as motion compensation, etc., other things, such as YUV colour conversion, is done over the shaders.

 

[Pete]

That's nice until you remember that nothing is forcing theses sites to publish their reviews as soon as the NDA lift off.

Except for advertising dollars and pre-release hardware direct from the IHVs (in exchange for what I assume is a guarantee to get an article out the day NDA lifts).

 

[russo121]

Maybe I'm looking too deep, but, http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_on-chip-video.html

"...Video processing on the GPU deals with two major uses of video: playback (decoding), and recording analog video and converting it into a defined digital format (encoding)...."

"...Video Encoding
The GeForce 6 Series GPUs are also capable of hardware video encode acceleration. Traditionally, video encoding is a difficult and time consuming process. The GeForce 6 Series GPUs include a motion estimation engine. Using state-of-the-art technologies, the motion estimation engine delivers higher-quality video at the same or lower bit rate, as well as lower CPU utilization for improved system performance..."

It suggests the "video processor" will help video encoding but not doing the entire job necessary to a full encode (not talking about audio). This little piece of info says IMO, the "video processor" resumes itself (the encoder part) to a "motion estimation engine". We all know, to encode a video it needs more than a motion estimation calculation. It means they need a third party software designed to use their video processor.
If it helps video encoding, it's a good thing!

 

[Sigma]

Take your own conclusions... The same sh*t company! Promises, only promises and cheats

You mean, like the "F-Buffer"?! Where is that? Probably, just another "promise"... But wait. It is from ATI...

The same sh*t companies!! Promises, only promises and cheats

 

[^eMpTy^]

I'll just ignore the irony of the title of this thread...

The broken encoder sucks...I'm hoping they'll fix it in the nv45...