Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

I understand nVidia support a thing called pure video for the media player on a Windows OS to accelerate playback of mpeg4 streams, etc.

I also understand pure video is supported on series 6 cards (6200, 6800).

Are the functions provided by VDPAU and Pure Video the same?

If so, can we have VDPAU on a 6200 nVidia card?

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

VDPAU provides a subset of PureVideo HD functionality, see e.g. http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=123091. Please see the documentation for a list of supported GPUs; GeForce 6200 GPUs do not provide the hardware features required by VDPAU.

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

@ticket:
Purevideo != Purevideo HD
Purevideo is used to decode mpeg2 streams, not mpeg4/h264 AFAIK. Purevide HD is used for mpeg4/h264

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

This isn't making sense!

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/purevideo.htm

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/purevideo_support.html


http://uk.nzone.nvidia.com/object/nz...t_home_uk.html

That to me says that purevideo playback of H.264, VC-1 and MP4 is supported by GeForce (and presumably GeForce 6200). So the GeForce 6200 can do it?!?

edit: I think the issue is there are TWO forms of pure video : PureVideo & PureVideoHD
This link shows 6200 can support PureVideo:

http://uk.nzone.nvidia.com/object/nz...t_home_uk.html

All I am after is support for PureVideo on a 6200 in Linux (it is available on Windows...). I thought VDPAU could provide this. I don't need PureVideo HD (not available for 6 series).

http://www3.pny.com/6200-256MB-PCI-P2526C420.aspx

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

The VDPAU implementation requires a GeForce 8 or higher GPU. PureVideo is a completely different implementation. They are not the same. You may read that they do the same things, but that doesn't mean they were programmed in the exact same fashion.

VDPAU != PureVideo

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

So a 6200 card has the capability under Windows, but not under Linux, only because the Linux driver has not been written?

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

I'm not 100% totally sure of the situation, but I think that it's as follows:

• 6xxx, 7xxx
  • In Windows: PureVideo: accelerates only mpeg1/2 streams.
  • In Linux: XvMc: accelerates only mpeg1/2 streams.
• GF 8 or higher
  • In Windows: PureVideo-HD: accelerates mpeg1/2, h264, WMV/VC-1, etc.
  • In Linux: VDPAU: accelerates mpeg1/2, h264, WMV/VC-1, etc.

Sometimes the NVIDIA ads mix up PureVideo and PureVideo-HD.


I would like to know though what features are exclusive to PureVideo-HD that VDPAU don't support yet (or will never support).

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

VDPAU only supports graphic cards that decode the entire video stream on dedicated hardware. This is Geforce 8 and up. Earlier cards only did partial decoding on dedicated hardware, the rest was done with shaders and/or in software. These shaders would very likely need to be rewritten for Linux, something Nvidia it seems doesn't intend to do.

Any documentation mentioning PureVideo (or PureVideo HD) is not valid for VDPAU. The names are different for a reason - they're not the same thing. At all.

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

No. Stop putting words into people's mouths.

The 6200 cannot decode H.264 streams. It never will.

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

mmm look this:

http://sl1pkn07.no-ip.com/imagenes/DSCF4914.JPG
http://sl1pkn07.no-ip.com/imagenes/DSCF4915.JPG

not all BR/HDDVD working on mpeg2....

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

Geforce6 and 7 only decodes in hardware Mpeg1/2. The mpeg-4/vc1 is decoded fully in software. Purevideo on these cards mean only postprocessing (sharpening, blurring, scaling, color space conversion, denoising, deinterlacing) done using shaders.

Nvidia on Linux only supports these things which are really supported via hardware because smart people use Linux (such software purevideo would be discovered immediately by users and laughed at). Windows users are IT dumb and will buy/believe in everything what marketing print on box. That is why VDPAU appeared when Geforces started to fully hardware decode mpeg-4/vc1. Before XvMC was enough because GeforceFX/6/7 only have mpeg1/2 iDCT, MC and CSC levels of decoding which in 100% are covered by XvMC and Xv.

Nvidia like other companies know that majority of Linux community are IT geeks so they do not put on us marketing charm because this simply will not work. They know we don't look on colorful boxes but on chipsets and hardware specs. That is why Linux driver is about 15MB rather than 100MB and have almost everything what Windows driver has but without bloatware and other disk wasting crap omnipresent on Windows.

Re: Pure video = VDPAU ?
 

Hey, these words are from NVIDIA, not me:

Implication: GeForce 6 h/w can accelerate H264, etc.

As zbiggy says, (best explanation so far), the confusion appears to arise from marketing hype.

"The 6200 cannot decode H.264 streams. It never will"
These are fine words being put into people's mouths, but I'd really like to know the reason why the 6200 cannot decode H.264 streams. It is not what NVIDIA are saying in their adverts. There is probably some simple explanation, to do with the h/w architecture, but it sure would be nice to know.