Vista & Purevideo

[Miksu]

Just upgraded my htpc to Vista RTM. Everything else is working OK but PureVideo is causing some problems. It installs just fine but the video quality is really poor. It's on the same level as it was in MCE2005 if I disabled hardware acceleration.

Here are some other people who are having the same problem. They also seem to have pinpointed the problem:

When I play exactly the same MCE TV program file with Media Player first on XP with Hardware acceleration enabled I get DXVA mode, however, then I play it again of Vista with hardware acceleration enabled I get YUY2 mode.

Maybe someone has found a solution to this?

 

[Malo]

Are there RTM drivers from nvidia yet? From what I can tell there's only RC2 drivers available which from my tests don't work on RTM. Maybe thats the cause for no purevideo hardware support?

 

[Miksu]

Are there RTM drivers from nvidia yet? From what I can tell there's only RC2 drivers available which from my tests don't work on RTM. Maybe thats the cause for no purevideo hardware support?

Atleast in Win XP Purevideo codecs didn't require Nvidia based GPU. I've been using it with my X1800XT and it has worked fine. I know some people use Intel's intergrated video cards with Purevideo.

 

[INKster]

The inquirer is at it again, now single link DVI only supports 720p ("or so") with HDCP'ed content on G80:

http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35966

To my knowledge, standard single link dvi displays up to 1920x1200 at 60Hz, making 1080p a piece of cake.
It's a new low, even for them...

 

[Dave Baumann]

Previously graphics chips have only included one HDCP cypher per DVI output, and this appear to be the case for G80 as well. This is fine for single link DVI displays, but not necessarily so great for dual link displays. Dell's 30" panel, for instance, uses a cypher per link, meaning that each link of a dual link DVI port needs to carry the HDCP encryption (and so that means a total of 4 cyphers should be included if you have a dual dual-link DVI output graphics board) - if you only support one cypher per DVI output then to play DRM content you have to drop down the resolution to get down to a single link rate.

This is compounded by the Dell 30" panel as it only supports two timings; one for dual link and one for single link - the single link begins to step in at or below 1280x800, so if you are watching an HD DVD or Blu Ray movie on this panel then graphics boards that only supports one HDCP cypher per link then you have to drop the resolution down to 1280x800 or less.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_purevideo_hd_preview/page3.asp

 

[INKster]

Previously graphics chips have only included one HDCP cypher per DVI output, and this appear to be the case for G80 as well. This is fine for single link DVI displays, but not necessarily so great for dual link displays. Dell's 30" panel, for instance, uses a cypher per link, meaning that each link of a dual link DVI port needs to carry the HDCP encryption (and so that means a total of 4 cyphers should be included if you have a dual dual-link DVI output graphics board) - if you only support one cypher per DVI output then to play DRM content you have to drop down the resolution to get down to a single link rate.

This is compounded by the Dell 30" panel as it only supports two timings; one for dual link and one for single link - the single link begins to step in at or below 1280x800, so if you are watching an HD DVD or Blu Ray movie on this panel then graphics boards that only supports one HDCP cypher per link then you have to drop the resolution down to 1280x800 or less.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_purevideo_hd_preview/page3.asp

Then, Dell's 30 inch display can't comply with the Single-Link DVI standard (max 1920*1200 at 60Hz) ?
http://www.ddwg.org/dviinfo.asp

Does that limitation occur with DVI-to-HDMI cables too ?

 

[Dave Baumann]

Its not a "standard" that needs to be complied to - single link is up to... For the Dell panel its EDID reports two timings - single link up to 1280x800 and dual link from > 1280x800 - 2560x1600.

 

[INKster]

Its not a "standard" that needs to be complied to - single link is up to... For the Dell panel its EDID reports two timings - single link up to 1280x800 and dual link from > 1280x800 - 2560x1600.

There is free software to override EDID's limitations, i think (Powerstrip, for instance).
The question is, does it work with HDCP ?