How do I know if HD Video is accelerated

[infocus13]

Hi

I'm running an ATI 2600pro on an AMD x2 4200 using PowerDVD ultra as my codec.

I have enabled all the relevant Hardware Acceleration options in PowerDVD and CCC and when I play videos via PowerDVD and monitor GPU/CPU usage via CCC & Task Manager I get figures of about 40% for GPU usage and 20% for CPU usage (720p content 4mb/sec). So it apears that hardware acc is on.

However, playing 720p HD content in PowerDVD and going into options, I get the "Enable Hardware Acceleration (ATI Avivo)" option unticked and grayed out. If I stop the content then the option is ticked and not grayed out. So this makes me think that h/w acceleration is not in fact working.

So my question is - how can I be definetely sure that h/w acceleration is working in Sage (noting I have PowerDVD selected as my codec and the Cyberlink H264 decoder set as my preferred Filter under the DShow Filter Manager). I have heard of numerous issues with my 2600pro card and h/w acceleration so I want to be sure it is doing its job or I will return it.

Thanks for any help.

[HawgGuy]

Why not try it both ways from within PowerDVD.

Open PDVD and manually uncheck AVIVO, then play the file and check CPU usage. Then stop playback and check AVIVIO and repeat. See if it makes a difference.

You're probably getting acceleration. On my system it bounces between 15-20% for mpeg2-hd accelerated and 40-45% unaccelerated.

h264-hd runs around 5% accelerated and 50-60% unaccelerated.

[infocus13]

Yeah, I thought of doing that - will try tonight. I just thought there is a more scientific way of testing

I guess because the GPU is being used at all indicates that acceleration takes places, right? If it wasn't accelerated, then the GPU would not be used, right?

[Taddeusz]

I've recently learned that Cyberlink's decoder is kind of squirely when used outside of the PowerDVD program. I don't believe any of the options in PowerDVD are actually usable outside of the program. The only option available when using it through the DirectX filter is whether it is hardware accelerated or not. The hardware accleration is enabled by default (at least on PowerDVD 7's decoder). There are no other options on the filter settings for the Cyberlink decoder. Kind of disappointing if you ask me.

That being said, it works great for decoding HD on my X1950XT. Although I don't believe it's using the correct black level for SD content. SD recordings from SageTV look fine when played inside PowerDVD but the black is too grey when played elsewhere.

It would be nice if there were a decoder that supported all the modern acceleration features and used the correct black level for video.

[infocus13]

So If I understand correctly, if I set the Dshow Cyberlink h264 filter to preferred merit & enabled H/w acceleration inside the filter properties, my HD content should be accelerated?

Why the hell do I still get 30% cpu usage on 720p content then?! On 720p content (i.e. Halo 3 trailer, Terminator 2 trailer) I get 40% GPU (so something is being accelerated, right?!) and 30% CPU. This is on my ati 2600pro and amd x2 4200+

Argh, what gives?

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by dkatchalov

So If I understand correctly, if I set the Dshow Cyberlink h264 filter to preferred merit & enabled H/w acceleration inside the filter properties, my HD content should be accelerated?

Why the hell do I still get 30% cpu usage on 720p content then?! On 720p content (i.e. Halo 3 trailer, Terminator 2 trailer) I get 40% GPU (so something is being accelerated, right?!) and 30% CPU. This is on my ati 2600pro and amd x2 4200+

Argh, what gives?

What version of the Cyberlink drivers?
What version of the ATI drivers?

[infocus13]

Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 7.2
ATI drivers - latest from website (7.8)

Do I need PDVD Ultra 7.3 maybe for h/w acc to work properly?

[infocus13]

I'm going to do a graphedit on one of my 720p files tonight to see if they end up being decoded by cyberlink h264 codec. I'm 99% sure they will though.

I'm wondering if I need to install a splitter codec (sorry don't know what these actually do, just heard they are used on systems that decode HD content)?

The high CPU usage on HD files on my system kills me though. I played the same 720p on my other desktop (P4 3ghz, older GFX card) and got about 20-30% CPU usage!! I would've though my amd x2 4200 + 2600pro combined should be much lower than their current @ 30%!!

Maybe I shouldn't use the Windows Task Manager to monitor CPU use. Is it inaccurate? Is there a better tool?

[HawgGuy]

I would try PDVD 7.3 (which has been updated several times since release).

Don't think the splitter will matter with SageTV.

Task manager is fine to monitor CPU.

[infocus13]

Came home last night & tried graphedit on my WMV HD and .mov h264 files. Graphedit connects to the Cyberlink H264 filter, so all is good.

Funny thing is - playing the HD files in Graphedit uses 5% CPU 20% (or even 15%) GPU - much lower than playing them in PowerDVD - why is that?

Anyway, I installed PDVD 7.3 + 3104a patch and I did notice an improvement - particularly in my channel change speed. Didn't monitor CPU usage in PDVD though, didn't have time.

Can anyone perhaps point me to some HD "torture test" clips (not WMV HD) that I can use to really test my gfx acceleration/performance?

Thanks for all your help so far.