[mythtv-users] FYI - New HW video accellAPI from NVIDIA

[Justin The Cynical]

Nicolas Will wrote:

> You are talking about PureVideo.
> 
> NVIDIA is really talking about PureVideo HD. It looks like the circuitry
> on-chip is quite different, thus needs different code.

Ah, I wasn't aware that there was a PureVideo and a PureVideo HD available.

*looks a bit more*

Hm, I think my point still stands...

> If the marketing names are about the same, it doesn't mean that the
> engineering is.


Agreed.  However, the the difference between the two appears to be more 
marketing than engineering.

 From what I can tell at the PureVideo HD page and associated PDF's, the 
only difference between the two is the HD version of PureVideo is that 
the HD version is HDCP Capable.  Heck, the product comparison PDF on the 
PureVideo and PureVideo HD pages are the same file that I looked it 
showing that every chip back to the Go 6600 support h.264 acceleration 
under PureVideo.

Even if a given video card can't move everything to the GPU, which is 
one of the selling points in regards to the 8xxx series cards, being 
able to move even parts of the h.264 pipeline to the video card would help.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that NVidia is finally bringing this to the 
Linux community as it's past due, but it does seem to be more of a 
marketing move than a answer to something many end users have been 
wanting for some time.

Regardless, this is all speculation as I don't have access to the lower 
level GPU design specs, and I really couldn't understand most of it if 
it was available (I am not a hardware engineer).  I may be very wrong 
and there may be some very large design differences that are keeping 
them from implementing this newly announced API across more of their 
chipsets.

However, what NVidia is stating with this announcement and PureVideo HD 
seems to ignore what they have stated earlier with the 6xxx series chips 
and PureVideo in regards to chipset support.