Previous "2900 XT Lacks UVD" Posts

Sorry, what was on the website?

 

I'm refering to this claim by santiagodraco, which sadly none of us has any way to verify or deny since there indeed doesn't seem to be a cached copy anywhere, but still noteworthy I guess.

 

As far as I'm aware they've not changed. The ones that are up there now are the ones that I saw prior to the release of the them being posted publically.

 

Examples of comments generally unhelpful to constructive dialogue. Funny and cathartic, maybe, but this isn't the psych forum. This isn't the R600 thread, either, but you can't keep a good rumor and innuendo thread down.

 

Hmm, DailyTech is clearly not amused.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7447

There's quite a lot more - I suggest reading the whole thing.

 

Posted on the UK site (google cache). Uses quotes from different hardware sites mentioning that it uses a solution superior to 8800, calling it UVD

UVD is mentioned two or three times, there, and no one corrected any of the quotes that might be erroneous, though it doesn't specifically say the 2900 has it, it is very implicit.

 

Here is another Press Release
___________________________________________
Quote:

"Superior Performance at Every Price
The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series of products introduces immersive DirectX® 10 gaming enabling the next generation of visual effects at every price point. The line-up boasts many firsts for the graphics industry, including a powerful second-generation Unified Shader Architecture (USA), a 512 Mbit memory bus designed for full performance high dynamic range (HDR) rendering, and new Unified Video Decoder (UVD) technology for high-fidelity HD multimedia playback. The mid-range and entry-level GPUs are the first graphics products in the industry to use an energy-efficient 65 nm process technology to achieve silent, passive cooling, high performance and lower power consumption. The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series also builds on AMD’s Windows Vista™ leadership. Having been the first graphics company to introduce a WHQL driver for Windows Vista, ATI Catalyst™ drivers continue to deliver industry-leading game compatibility and an extremely stable user experience in Windows Vista™. "
__________________________________________________________

Unless there is another product that ATI released with a 512-bit bus...

Here is a cached page discussing AVIVO

Then, AMD goes on to explain AVIVO - "ATI Avivo™ HD is AMD’s new reference for advanced HD image processing, delivering cool and quiet full-spec HD disc playback with hardware-based Unified Video Decoding (UVD) capability, built-in HDMI with multi-channel HD surround audio, and support for high-quality connectivity with multiple HDTVs and displays."

And finally, AMD.de lists the HD 2900XT as having the following AVIVO features:

ATI Avivo™ HD Video and Display Platform

* Two independent display controllers
o Drive two displays simultaneously with independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls and video overlays for each display
o Full 30-bit display processing
o Programmable piecewise linear gamma correction, color correction, and color space conversion
o Spatial/temporal dithering provides 30-bit color quality on 24-bit and 18-bit displays
o High quality pre- and post-scaling engines, with underscan support for all display outputs
o Content-adaptive de-flicker filtering for interlaced displays
o Fast, glitch-free mode switching
o Hardware cursor
* Two integrated dual-link DVI display outputs
o Each supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)1
o Each includes a dual-link HDCP encoder with on-chip key storage for high resolution playback of protected content2
* Two integrated 400 MHz 30-bit RAMDACs
o Each supports analog displays connected by VGA at all resolutions up to 2048x15361
* HDMI output support
o Supports all display resolutions up to 1920x10801
o Integrated HD audio controller with multi-channel (5.1) AC3 support, enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution
* Integrated AMD Xilleon™ HDTV encoder
o Provides high quality analog TV output (component/S-video/composite)
o Supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions
o Underscan and overscan compensation
* HD decode acceleration for H.264/AVC, VC-1, DivX and MPEG-2 video formats
o Flawless DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray™ playback
o Motion compensation and IDCT (Inverse Discrete Cosine Transformation)
* HD video processing
o Advanced vector adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing
o De-blocking and noise reduction filtering
o Edge enhancement
o Inverse telecine (2:2 and 3:2 pull-down correction)
o Bad edit correction
o High fidelity gamma correction, color correction, color space conversion, and scaling
* MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264/AVC encoding and transcoding
* Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
* VGA mode support on all display outputs

Now I don't know what UVD is. I don't know what half of this stuff does, since PC TV and DVD is not my specialty- the last time I actually watched a live broadcast television show was the Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars finale - before that it was the 2003 Super Bowl, and that was because I lived in Tampa and couldn't get away from it. I've turned on a TV a total of twice in 6 years. I would think, though, that all of this "encoding" and "decoding" right with the HD seems to me to imply it. I am at least informed about video cards, which is more than most consumers have going for them, and these specs certainly seem to be saying to me that they do this stuff.

 

Me too...

 

My apologies, perhaps someone would be kind enough to move the posts out of this topic and into a new one specific to R600 and UVD?

 

Apologies for getting sidetracked by people complaining about R600 in this thread.

I'm still hoping that a passively cooled HD 2600 XT (like the Sapphire card that Daily Tech had posted) performs well with good video quality.

Is there a passively cooled performance 8600 part? Since, gaming is only a secondary purpose in my HTPC, I'm waiting to see whether these two compare in video quality and performance when passively cool before upgrading the video in the HTPC.

It's unfortunate AMD/ATI no longer make the all in wonder cards.

Also, anyone know if any forthcoming theatre chips will feature UVD?

Regards,
SB

 

caffeinated, read the footnotes of the press release, its explicit in its support:

As for Avivo HD - UVD is a part of that technology set, but its not a definining feature of it.

 

What about the AMD.DE specifications..are those not AVIVO or UVD? Honestly, I posted this so that someone more knowledgeable than myself could see them. Could you maybe define what this "UVD" is then? Someone explained it was something to do with HD content, but again, .... to me it sounds like a very bad version of what you catch from prostitutes...

 

Take that comment of mine with a grain of salt since 1) I can't verify it myself and 2) I'm ticked off enough about this whole thing to have all of the OTHER UVD stuff on the ATI site confused with the 2900 specific page.

I'm still betting that UVD was a component of the R600 at a point very recently and was pulled due to some unknown tech problems.

All other claims, such as ATI slides on review sites, mass confusion with review sites and ATI's own distributors (and packaging) is certainly based on verifiable fact.

 

Whelp, there ya go. My post immediately above this one notwithstanding, it seems AMD/ATI did have direct marketing collateral tying 2900 to UVD.

 

And then I see Dave's comments about footnotes. Need to read these threads all the way before replying to something!

In any event the score hasn't changed.

ATI, you folks need to realize you have a major PR problem on your hands. This is reputation time here and considering the already greatly shifted market to Nvidia it's time to turn this problem into an opportunity.

You have a base of customers who purchased these cards expecting to get UVD (and for very good reason, most of it AMD marketing) only to find out the promised feature is missing and the cards we've purchased are "exchange only" from virtually ALL vendors. It's almost as if this kind of thing was anticipated.

This is an opportunity to set things right and regain lost credibility and customer loyalty. Figure out how to get us this feature, either as a new card of equal performance level in the future, or some other creative way.

 

Ummm, thats a press release that clarifies exactly what features are in what product and a spec list that doesn't list UVD!

 

It seems that the tech report was also confused.

The one thing I have a hard time with is the AVIVO HD is described as having UVD, and then the HD 2900XT lists that it has AVIVO HD.

 

Sapphire didn't say UVD on the 2900 box either and just uses "AVIVO HD" as the video marketing term.

 

I think you can take a stand and fight for UVD as soon as we've compared the 2600 with the 2900. nVidia was never hurt by that 6800 fiasco and I don't see the world suddenly halt the purchase because of something that isn't enabled in the drivers yet.

 

Nor do I recall the 6800 situation coming to light in the first two weeks, but rather some months in wasn't it?

Anyone who's purchased a 2900 these first 10 days that is unhappy about the UVD situation I'd certainly understand if they decided to return the card.