ATI's Avivi HD vs Nvidia's Purevideo HD Review (16 April 2008)

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Nirodha

80 posts

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#23150 20-Jun-2008 08:32

Hi all,

Even though the review specifically discusses Blu-Ray and HD-DVD issues, I thought it would be of interest to Freeview enthusiasts as well - seeing as how all three media platforms share codecs.

ATI's Avivo HD vs Nvidia's Purevideo HD - BluRay and HD-DVD Performance and Image Quality
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=552&pageid=1

Kind regards

Dell Vostro 200 - CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 RAM: 4GB HD: Seagate Barracuda 500 GB, USB 2.0 External 40 GB GFX: ATI HD 2600XT 256MB Audio: Realtek HD 7.1 LCD: Dell E228WFP DTV: InnoDV TVideo-650

Media softs: DVBViewer Pro 3.9.4, Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 Ultra, Media Player Classic - Home Cinema 1.1, Winamp Pro 5.531, iZotope Ozone and AC3 Filter 1.11 on Windows Vista Business (32 bit) SP1.

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Biddle Corp

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#139306 20-Jun-2008 08:56

With ATI cards still choking with interlaced H.264 content under Vista there unfortunately is only 1 choice for people - Nvidia.

I'm an ATI fan myself and there are features of their chipsets and drivers that are still superior to what Nvidia have it's unfortunate that they let themselves down so badly.

Nirodha

80 posts

Master Geek

#139313 20-Jun-2008 09:32

I've owned and used both ATI and Nvidia cards over the years. And, while I've owned more Nvidia cards than ATI's in the past, this time around I have an ATI and am very satisified with it.

Interlaced H.264 content chocked for you under Vista due to a driver issue, which could have been solved easily; I know, because it happened to me as well on a driver update. However, I was running smoothly again within 2 minutes after rolling back to the previous 8.42 driver release. While I'm sorry you had a bad experience, your statement about Nvidia being the "only choice" is incorrect, and doesn't reflect my own experience.

Best

sbiddle

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#139315 20-Jun-2008 09:43

What version exactly did you use?

I spent probably in excess of 30 hours earlier this year trying every combination of Catalyst drivers from the early 7.x series (that were horrible under Vista anyway) and am aware of plenty of other users who still have no luck no matter what version of the drivers that they use.

The issue that are experienced are loss of video sync during playback and serious problems changing between progressive and interlaced channels along with random pixelisation of video during live TV.

I haven't tried the latest 8.6 to see if that changes anything at all but the 8.6 beta didn't improve things at all.

hellonearthisman

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#139337 20-Jun-2008 10:52

I've just ordered a DTV card, should be here next week. It is for a Vista box with AMD ATI 2600xt (ddr4 - sweeat).
I guess I will discover which of these two gentlemen has the valid points in regards to me experience of the install.

Drivers where an issues (Nividia knows about driver issues) because when they wrote them the standards where still being documented.

AMD ATI have just release updated drivers, maybe it's now been resolved.

C0rsa

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#139366 20-Jun-2008 12:25

Just downloaded and tried catalyst 8.6 drivers. Huge improvement on 8.5.
Using an ATI HD2600XT and MediaPortal the green jaggy screens have gone with just some pixelation issues for 576i broadcasts

Guess i'll put the 8600GT i ordered 2 hours ago on hold for a while

ajst2duk

170 posts

Master Geek

#139404 20-Jun-2008 15:35

I would like to chip in with my 2c .....
I struggled for ages with a HD3870 with all the usual green screen & pixellation issues, was limited as to what version I could roll back to. I threw in the towell and switched it with a 9600GT. I have been an ATI fan since I switched from my TI4200 to the 9800pro, so it wasn't an easy choice. I figure some day they will get the drivers sorted, & I might come back, as the blu-ray picture quality seemed a bit better with ATI. Anyway, in the meantime, Nvidia seems dead easy and no issues with anything I can throw at it.

I'm just a crazy newbie?
My HTPC: www.jenkin.net/HTPC.htm
Silverstone grandis, E8200, Corsair2GB, Seagate 1.5TB + OCZ 30GB SSD, ~~HD3870XT~~ 9600GT Passive Vista HP Hauppauge HVR2200/USB 500T Corsair HX620 modular PSU, Pioneer BDC-S02BK Blu-Ray, Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R, Logitech MX Air Citipulse DA2.03E USB DAC

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Nirodha

80 posts

Master Geek

#139415 20-Jun-2008 16:06

sbiddle: What version exactly did you use?

FreddyK

84 posts

Master Geek

#139519 21-Jun-2008 00:19

Anyone know where one can find these fabled 8.42 drivers? My Google aint too good as all I could find was reference to the linux variety.

I didnt jump onboard the FreeviewHD wagon until May so have only experienced the 8.5 & 8.6 driver set and like many, had major issues with HW acceleration and the interlaced broadcasts. I too have spent hours searching the net for some sort of resolution to this problem and your post Nirodha is the first I've seen of someone who has, so heres hoping.

I prefer the picture I get from ATi so if I could move back to my HD2400XT, I'd do so at the drop of a hat.

MediaBox - CASE: Antec Fusion V2 with 430W ATX PSU, MOTHERBOARD: Foxconn 6150K8MA-8KRS , CPU: AMD64 X2 4200+ with fanless Scythe Ninja Mini cooler, RAM: 2 Gig DDR400, HDD: 1 X 1Tb & 2 X 320Gb, TV TUNER: 1x Hauppauge WinTV Nova T 500 HD card & 1x Hauppauge WinTV-PVR150MCE, VIDEOCARD: XFX 8500GT passive cooling, DISPLAY: Panasonic TX32LX700A LCD TV, SOUND: Logitech Z-5500, SOFTWARE: Windows 7 Ultimate x86.

sbiddle

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#139522 21-Jun-2008 06:33

It is simply Catalyst 8.4 - Guru 3D has all the current and legacy drivers available here

Nirodha

80 posts

Master Geek

#139532 21-Jun-2008 08:25

Hi all,

In an effort to assist others, I'm happy to provide the driver package I have on my system, as Dell may have tweaked it. If they did, this may explain why I'm not having the problems with an ATI card that others are.

I'm in the process of uploading the driver package to RapidShare. However, it will take awhile as I only have a 128KB/s uplink. I'll post the URL when it's complete.

Best

FreddyK

84 posts

Master Geek

#139645 21-Jun-2008 23:33

Thanks for the link sbiddle, but I think I'll wait for Nirodha to post his driver package first. From what I've read, although better, 8.4 hasnt fixed the problem so heres hoping Nirodha's custom driver package does what every other package cant. If it does, the man will be a legend :)

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Nirodha

80 posts

Master Geek

#139657 22-Jun-2008 01:08

Hi all,

Please use the below URL to grab the drivers direct from Dell. These are what I'm using:

http://ftp.us.dell.com/video/R170619.EXE

Best

hellonearthisman

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#140433 25-Jun-2008 13:04

I've got my card working at last. It arrived Monday and the learning curve was frustrating.
I used:

GB-PVR.

ATI HD2600xt

Graphics Chipset    ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Driver Packaging Version    8.501-080602a-064790C-ATI
Catalyst® Version    08.6
Provider    ATI Technologies Inc.
Catalyst® Control Center Version    2008.0602.2243.38732

After installing the video drivers

and tuning in the channels the video went fine, no green nothing, HD plays nice :)
Finding the audio drivers was another mission, got them via google cache. mm_aac_dec_0.9.5.0_bin is the build I use, it crackles a tiny bit but it's the better of 0.9.0 0.9.1 0.9.2

I also installed vista again as I made a stripped raid for it and still to look at SP1. CPU loads are like 25-30%

ajst2duk

170 posts

Master Geek

#140484 25-Jun-2008 16:05

hellonearthisman: I've got my card working at last. It arrived Monday and the learning curve was frustrating.
I used:

GB-PVR.

ATI HD2600xt

Graphics Chipset    ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Driver Packaging Version    8.501-080602a-064790C-ATI
Catalyst® Version    08.6
Provider    ATI Technologies Inc.
Catalyst® Control Center Version    2008.0602.2243.38732

After installing the video drivers and tuning in the channels the video went fine, no green nothing, HD plays nice :)
Finding the audio drivers was another mission, got them via google cache. mm_aac_dec_0.9.5.0_bin is the build I use, it crackles a tiny bit but it's the better of 0.9.0 0.9.1 0.9.2

I also installed vista again as I made a stripped raid for it and still to look at SP1. CPU loads are like 25-30%

Try looking at the settings for monogram, the crackling drove me nuts and it turned out it was downmixing to stereo. It took a $700 investment in an outboard DAC to realise it wasn't anything to do with my onboard sound or drivers, I was getting hifi crackles. I changed settings in monogram to "no downmixing" and I now get perfect sound.

hellonearthisman

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#140502 25-Jun-2008 16:55

Thanks for the tip, I didn't have mixing on. I have installed http://blog.monogram.sk/janos/2008/04/18/monogram-aac-decoder-0940/ version 0940 and I think it's got less clicks but will try it for 24 hours.

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