nVidia's new 6800 Series GPU - built-in video encoder?

[awlchu]

I saw this on nvidia's web site:

Video Encoding
The GeForce 6 Series GPUs are also capable of hardware video encode acceleration. Traditionally, video encoding is a difficult and time consuming process. The GeForce 6 Series GPUs include a motion estimation engine. Using state-of-the-art technologies, the motion estimation engine delivers higher-quality video at the same or lower bit rate, as well as lower CPU utilization for improved system performance.


Does anyone have more info on this feature?

[Suntan]

Check this out about the upcoming geforce 6600. Not bad for a $150 card.

-Suntan

[rallynavvie]

They said my card had hardware MPEG2 decoding built in but I sure can't figure out how to utilize it. It says it needs accompanying software in order to work. So how is that hardware if I can't use it with Premiere or TMPGEnc? I think this other claim may be flexing the truth, though I'd like to see a review with more info on this.

[freestyler]

So does this mean Nvidia will introduce their own MPEG encoding software? Or have they already?

Or is this referring to their VIVO cards?

[Suntan]

Well, I do know that NVidia has NVDVD.

Other than that I am not too sure. Currently running a G4 Ti 4200 on my 1900XP, but I am just starting to look into viable components for a dedicated HTPC (maybe as a Christmas present to myself.

-Suntan

[awlchu]

I think (from research on a nVidia site) the encoding capabilities is on the video (s-video?) out of the card.

No mention how audio (if at all) is handled.

It would be very, very slick, if it was implemented as a CODEC that could be called from vdub(mod) or other CODEC front ends.

[rallynavvie]

You could get one of these for an HTPC box:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-191&depa=1
I don't think it encodes on the fly (though it does mention recording TV to DVD) but it looks pretty neat. Add that to your 1900 system and use that as your HTPC and get yourself a new system for work/play. I've been eyeing that one up for a while now but holding off to see if they make a personal cinema version of the GeForce 6.

[Suntan]

@rallynavvie

That won't really do anything that my Ti 4200 and Wonder VE Tuner card isn't already doing.

No, when I build my dedicated HTPC it is going to be for 720p MPEG4/H264 playback. The video card will not help that much at all for that as I prefer VMR9 rendering anyway.

Although I have read a while ago that these newer GFX cards will have hardware support for MPEG4 encoding and decoding. Time will tell.

I am not really in a hurry to upgrade the HTPC as right now I am working on her to let me get a Nikon D70.

-Suntan

[adam]

I've read about this new feature. Its not a hardware encoder/decoder, it just offsets some of the load off your CPU, and if you had software that supported it, then it could perform additional processes like motion estimation. Basically, it just lets the video card do some of the billions of calculations insead of entirely relying on the CPU.

rallynavvie hardware decoding can only be utilized in software that supports it. Higher end DVD authoring packages like Scenarist support this for showing previews.

[rallynavvie]

Premiere has hardware support. I believe Encore does as well. AE might.