Comments

rmack350 wrote on 4/14/2004, 5:32 PM
Took a closer look at the Nvidia site. It looks as thought the card has a WMV decoder but not an encoder.

It does have an encoder/decoder for mpeg2 though. Also, it's intended for PCI-E so you'll want a new motherboard to go with it (probably).

One thing that may be nice about PCI-e is that it's a full duplex connection. Seems to me that you could incorporate a lot of graphics processing onto the graphics card. Which is what you're hoping.

I think we can definitely expect to see more rendering power for video at commodity prices over the next few years. Vegas fits into this nicely since it tends to leverage the most commonly available technologies.

Rob Mack
TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/14/2004, 5:53 PM
Adobe announced the "support" of the card because that means you can capture through it. You can capture in Vegas through an ATI AIW too. It uses a industry std capture control (like direct show or WDM). If NVidia supports the same thing then it will work too.

However, it's normaly better to capture through the card's own capture software. You have more options (so it doesn't matter if Adobe or Sony support them).

However, for the price of that card (if you want it for mpeg-2 capture), the new MB, etc etc etc... you could probley buy a dedicated mpeg-2 capture card. That would be better. :)
Nat wrote on 4/14/2004, 6:02 PM
What I understand is that you'll be able to render MPEG2 in realtime using aftereffects and this card.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/14/2004, 7:18 PM
really? That would be a BIG advance (especially not even several hundred $$ cards do this). I'd double check just to be sure. That would be worth some extra $$$.
Nat wrote on 4/14/2004, 7:48 PM
From tom's hardware :

"No changes to any program or video files are necessary to take advantage of the acceleration decoding features, as the driver intercepts all DirectX calls and forwards them directly to the video processor. In the case of MPEG 1/2/4 encoding, however, special software is required. Adobe has already announced support in upcoming versions of the After Effects suite. "
rmack350 wrote on 4/14/2004, 8:55 PM
Real time or better mpeg encoding sounds good, assuming you're happy with the results. I suspect that we will see some PCI express cards that will do specific things for video-like hardware keying, disolves, blurs, etc.

Seriously, I don't think this card is quite the magic bullet. Write some email to nvidia asking for certain features. They have a whole professional line and might be very interested in cards for video production, especially if their hardware already does the job but just isn't targeted to video.

I hate to be a wet blanket.

Rob Mack
TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/15/2004, 6:12 PM
I just took a look at the nvidia site, and their video decoding/encoding doesn't look any different from the current ATI AIW cards (from what they say). The video decoding (playback) they talk about smooth mpeg-2, WMV9 & divx. I have an ATI AIW 9600, and I've played back HD WMV9 with no skipping, and the ATI also "accelerates" WMV9 & DivX (not sure what that means). It also does mpeg-1/2/WMV/ ATI VCR (their own format) capture, all these in a really low res to full DV res. It also have a seperate "rage theature" chip. I think that does the same things as the nvidia.

I think the reason nvidia is making a "big deal" (it's not plastered all over their card, so it's not being bragged about) is because it's a normal 3d card that has these features and not a "special" card (the ATI AIW also has a TV tuner, FM tuner, blah blah).

However, for their cheap price, they'll give the ATI AIW cards a run for their money. :)

If you want to see a revolutionary (in my opinion) 3d card, check out the voodoo 5. They had eigther 2 or 4 (yeah 4!) GPU's on the card. Why? Well, for antialiasing & motion blur (real time motion blur for 3d!) it used 1 gpu for each sample (so you could have 4x motion blur or AA with no hit in speed), not 1 gpu for everything. THAT was a step forward I think. Of course 3dfx went out of business so... :)