ATI/nVidia und Video Decoding

Zitat

Let's mention our general conclusion first - the testbed coped with playback of all video files, but not all decoders fared well. For example, QuickTime H.264 decoder wastes CPU resources, it's performance for all HD video files was not ideal. On the other hand, CoreAVC uses much less CPU resources for decoding the same files, it allows to play any H.264 video (including the highest 1080p resolution) without resorting to a video card. The same concerns MPEG2 decoders - all-around CyberLink plays MPEG2 as well. But NVIDIA cards perform better with PureVideo. But you'll have to buy it.

[...]Conclusion on quality: video quality is generally good, except for some cases - banding in WMV, strange ATI's deinterlacing method for MPEG2 and mediocre default contrast and brightness settings in NVIDIA. There are no significant differences in the picture, except for the above-mentioned issues. Concerning formats, we can note that there are fewer problems with WMV HD, because there is only one decoder for it - the one integrated into Windows Media Player. You should carefully choose a decoder for H.264. One of the best decoders is CoreAVC. Purely software, it provides excellent quality and performance both on ATI and NVIDIA cards. Well, and MPEG2 is the most popular and the most problematic format. As this format often uses interlaced video, it requires post processing in the form of deinterlacing. This very process causes most problems. This article cannot answer all questions about MPEG2. So we plan on publishing another article devoted to playback of video files in this format on video cards from ATI and NVIDIA, the most problematic issue in quality terms according to our tests.