AGP Hardware Decode

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petes117

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#24956 7-Aug-2008 19:54

Hi all
I bought a Geforce 7600 GS for my computer hoping this would be enough to run DVB-T without upgrading my entire pc, but silly me of course I found out after that nothing works properly with AGP!

So after much fiddling around reading this thread and following dat's instructions,

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=83&TopicId=22768&page_no=2

I have managed to get TV3 and C4 running fairly well at 20-25 fps using VMR9 and PDVD8 codecs. Whats weird is that I can only get 3-6 fps on TV1 and TV2!
Any suggestions?

My system specs (taken from dxdiag.exe) is:
OS: Windows XP Pro SP3
System Manufacturer: VIAK8_
System Model: AWRDACPI
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Sempron 2600+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.6GHz
Memory: 1024 MB RAM
Page file: 308MB used, 2151MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0 (4.10.0000.3311)

Geforce Forceware driver is v175.19

Cheers!

eXDee

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#155069 7-Aug-2008 21:56

All i can say is good luck with those specs, not sure how you get hardware decoding going on the 7 series though. A sempron 2600 i'd say would be much too slow to software decode.

mcraenz

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#155087 8-Aug-2008 00:02

Yeah, sorry dude, you need to rebuild your system if you want trouble free HD h.264 DVB-T; But hey sempron 2600, you're about due!! I had an xp2500 as my main media PC, DVB-T HD was a great excuses to upgrade :D. Check my sig for specs, smooth sailing now.

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Quidam

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#155094 8-Aug-2008 00:53

Out of curiousties sake, how do you reckon this system would go?

ATI HD3850 AGP (8x)
C2D E4700 (2.6 ghz)
2Gig DDR400 (Dual Channel)

The mobo is an Asus P5PE-VM: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=0&model=1276&modelmenu=1

picked it up (new) for 80 bucks on trademe.

I reckon the only potential issue is the 8x AGP bus..

"There is no way to Peace -Peace is the Way" (A. J. Muste)

sbiddle

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#155101 8-Aug-2008 06:21

Quidam: Out of curiousties sake, how do you reckon this system would go?

ATI HD3850 AGP (8x)
C2D E4700 (2.6 ghz)
2Gig DDR400 (Dual Channel)

The mobo is an Asus P5PE-VM: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=0&model=1276&modelmenu=1

picked it up (new) for 80 bucks on trademe.

I reckon the only potential issue is the 8x AGP bus..

AGP is dead. Several people do appear to have got hardware acceleration working with AGP but it's by no means guaranteed to work.

ATI video cards also cause a lot of grief with virtually everybody who has one (even those models that support H.264 hardware acceleration) encountering problems.

PCIe and an NVidia 8 series (8500 or greater) is the only safe bet.

Quidam

291 posts

Ultimate Geek

#155149 8-Aug-2008 10:23

sbiddle:
Quidam: Out of curiousties sake, how do you reckon this system would go?

ATI HD3850 AGP (8x)
C2D E4700 (2.6 ghz)
2Gig DDR400 (Dual Channel)

The mobo is an Asus P5PE-VM: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=0&model=1276&modelmenu=1

picked it up (new) for 80 bucks on trademe.

I reckon the only potential issue is the 8x AGP bus..

AGP is dead. Several people do appear to have got hardware acceleration working with AGP but it's by no means guaranteed to work.

ATI video cards also cause a lot of grief with virtually everybody who has one (even those models that support H.264 hardware acceleration) encountering problems.

PCIe and an NVidia 8 series (8500 or greater) is the only safe bet.

Good thing I have 3 other systems that are all in the Nvidia 8800 class..

I listed that system above more out of interests sake -FYI it scores over 10K in 3DM06.

This system is definately not dead -it can play all the latest games (including Crysis).

Once I get a UHF arial installed, I'll see if I can squeze H.264 hardware acceleration out of it -but no problems if I can't -the PC sits in the guest bedroom.

"There is no way to Peace -Peace is the Way" (A. J. Muste)

sbiddle

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#155150 8-Aug-2008 10:26

Quidam:
Good thing I have 3 other systems that are all in the Nvidia 8800 class..

I listed that system above more out of interests sake -FYI it scores over 10K in 3DM06.

This system is definately not dead -it can play all the latest games (including Crysis).

Once I get a UHF arial installed, I'll see if I can squeze H.264 hardware acceleration out of it -but no problems if I can't -the PC sits in the guest bedroom.

3Dmark values are not the issue - it's the simple fact the GPU can't do H.264. Not all 8800's support H.264 either.

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Quidam

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#155231 8-Aug-2008 15:40

sbiddle:
Quidam:
Good thing I have 3 other systems that are all in the Nvidia 8800 class..

I listed that system above more out of interests sake -FYI it scores over 10K in 3DM06.

This system is definately not dead -it can play all the latest games (including Crysis).

Once I get a UHF arial installed, I'll see if I can squeze H.264 hardware acceleration out of it -but no problems if I can't -the PC sits in the guest bedroom.

3Dmark values are not the issue - it's the simple fact the GPU can't do H.264. Not all 8800's support H.264 either.

That mark was quoted in response to your general statement that "AGP is Dead".

My understanding is that some people have got hardware accelleration working with ATI, but I'll certainly agree NVidia is a much more reliable proposition. Just not so sure about all these absolute statements you keep making.

Cheers
b

"There is no way to Peace -Peace is the Way" (A. J. Muste)

sbiddle

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#155237 8-Aug-2008 15:59

Quidam:
My understanding is that some people have got hardware accelleration working with ATI, but I'll certainly agree NVidia is a much more reliable proposition. Just not so sure about all these absolute statements you keep making.

Cheers
b

It depends what the definition of "dead" is.

The reality is that 90% + of motherboards produced in the past 3 years would not have an AGP slot. There are hardly any new AGP cards appearing on the market and those that are are just reference PCIe cards with bridge chips to make them AGP compatible. They are not true "native" AGP cards.

eXDee

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#155272 8-Aug-2008 17:22

Just rebuild with an 8600GT/8500GT. The 8800GTS 320/640mb will not fully accelerate H264 and so isn't a good option if you have one of those.

petes117

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#155325 8-Aug-2008 21:30

GREAT SUCCESS! AGP is not dead! It just takes a lot of effort!

Very simple solution for hardware accleration:

Download WMV PowerToy, click 'decoder' tab, check 'DXVA WMV Support' and 'enable' in the drop down box. Make sure you're using VMR9.

I instantly got 40-45 fps on TV1 and TV2 and 20-25 fps on TV3 and C4
Give it a try AGP users!

lchiu7

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#155561 10-Aug-2008 10:13

That's great to hear. My PVR is a Sempron 3000 (64 bit) which works okay for a gbpvr machine. I also have a ATI 2600XT AGP video card which I have holding off installing (well I tried once but it seemed like a real tight fit in my Silverstone compact case) but will try again. Based on what your experiences I should be able to get hardware acceleration going on it and watch Freeview with no problems (performance wise that is). Of course my card is ATI yours is Nvidia - might be an issue there also

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petes117

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#156087 11-Aug-2008 22:06

Glad to hear I've been encouraging! Good luck with your ATI card.

An update on my system:
The TVNZ channels (but not TV3 or C4) were being restricted to around 15fps when I installed the ffdshow codec on my system. Jumped back to 45fps on uninstall. Any ideas on non-conflicting mpeg codecs or should I just leave well enough alone on my pc? ;)

I'm thinking of upgrading my cpu too. Its still maxing out even with my hardware decode running.
Not much of a hardware expert myself, but I've currently got an AMD Sempron 2600+.
Would a good choice (for a cheapie upgrade) be an AMD Sempron dual core 2100+ 1.8GHz? Or would an AMD Sempron 3400+ Socket AM2 1.8GHz be enough?