Skip to Content

Exclusive: Rock Band Unplugged Track List
AOL Tech

avivo posts

NVIDIA vs. ATI for HD movie playback

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 23rd 2007 at 1:12PM

Whether playing HD DVD and Blu-ray discs from a drive, or files obtained or stored via other means, you'll need plenty of horsepower to keep the HD flowing smoothly. Hardware Zone took a look at NVIDIA and ATI's competing platforms for hardware acceleration of h.264 and VC-1 decoding on PCs. They tested a few 1080i h.264-encoded movies from Japan and found neither solution was able reduce CPU load by more than 20-30% on their Core 2 Duo equipped test machine, with similar reductions on less CPU-intensive VC-1 discs. Overall they like the NVIDIA's PureVideo GeForce 7600 GT over the comparably priced ATI Radeon X1650 XT with Avivo, but check out the head to head for all the numbers before deciding which videocard goes in your next Media PC.

[Via MPEG4.net]

ATI launches TV Wonder 650 OTA HDTV tuner

by Richard Lawler posted Aug 21st 2006 at 8:43AM

ATI is trying to make catching OTA HDTV broadcasts on your PC a bit more mainstream with the TV Wonder 650. This add-in card not only picks up high definition broadcasts, but includes Avivo technology for image enhancement on analog broadcasts, motion-adaptive 3D comb filter, noise-reduction and hardware-assisted MPEG-2 encoding. The included high-def PVR software will record content in DivX, H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and WMV9 formats. This card seems Vista-ready, as they also mention combining it with ATI videocards to enable 3D menus, in addition to the MulTView picture-in-picture technology (requires two tuner cards) and the ability to have a translucent video window over other applications. While it isn't the OCUR CableCard device you may be waiting for, if broadcast HDTV is all you need this could be a great pickup for $129, shipping today.

Acer's new HD DVD Laptops; NVIDIA or ATI?

by Richard Lawler posted Jun 6th 2006 at 1:43PM

Engadget already let us know about rumors indicating Acer would be one of the first third parties to release notebooks with either HD DVD or Blu-ray drives. Now, both NVIDIA and ATI have announced that their graphics cards will be available in Acer's HD DVD laptops. The Aspire 9110, 9510 and 9800 will all feature graphics technology from NVIDIA, including their PureVideo HD acceleration. The Aspire 5670 will utilize ATI's Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU and Avivo high-def acceleration. According to Acer's announcement, all will feature HDMI and HDCP support for outputting high-def content to TVs. The LCD screens on the laptops themselves range in size from 15.4 to 20.1 inches, plus Core Duo CPUs, Acer's stereo speaker and subwoofer technology as well as S/PDIF output for Dolby and DTS output. They should all be available later on this month, no price mentioned.

Read - NVIDIA powers Acer HD DVD Laptops
Read - ATI drives high definition in Acer HD DVD Laptops
Read - Acer unveils high definition notebooks

ATI's "Avivo" specification pulls PC's, HDTV's closer

by Richard Lawler posted Sep 21st 2005 at 7:05PM


RubyATI has already shown their flexibility by partnering with JVC to put their chips in TV's, are now spreading the benefits of that technology across their product line with their newly-announced "Avivo" technology.  Simply put, Avivo is a set of image enhancement, display, and connection specifications that you'll be able to find in many of ATI's future products.  MPEG-2, H.264, HDCP or otherwise, if it is high def and you want to play it or output it to a TV, you will be able to with full hardware support on Avivo compatible products. Video cards equipped with the technology will support progressive scan output and hardware-assisted video encoding so you can convert for other devices without wasting precious CPU cycles. 

I'm glad to see this, as my home PC currently has an ATI Radeon 9200SE that is great, however setting everything up to work properly and output to my monitor and/or TV when and how I want has been more difficult than necessary.  Now that they are designing such connectivity in from the ground up, it will be good for everyone.  Expect Avivo labeled products to be available in the next month or so.

Will it do your laundry, dishes and homework?  No, but it will let you play that high-definition movie you just downloaded on your big screen TV with no loss of quality and leave you with CPU power to work with at the same time.





    AOL News

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in:

    Joystiq
    Download Squad
    The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
    BloggingStocks
    Joystiq Xbox
    Autoblog
    Big Download
    Fanhouse NFL Blog