What AGP Video Card Do You Use For HDTV?

[sslusser]

I've seen a few comments on forums about people using an AGP version of the ATI HD 2400, so it sounds like they starting to trickle out there. Apparently they great with H264/VC1 stuff like BluRay/HD-DVD, but there seems to be a few minor teething problems with highdef MPEG2. Hopefully these are software related and drivers will address these problems.

I haven't been able to find any Nvidia 8600 or ATI HD 2400/2600 series in AGP. It is good to hear some people have them. I'm always expecting ATI and Nvidia might suddenly change their minds and drop AGP support,even though they annonced support months ago.

I did read that the ATI cards are supposed to enable VC-1 acceleration in addition to the H264. The Nvidia 8-series do not enable VC-1. Not sure if you've seen the article below, but its got good comparison benchmarks. The article shows decode performance and includes an older P4 CPU (plus a C2D X6800 & E4300) in the benchmarks. With the HD 2600XT the P4 never goes above 20% utilization.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047&p=1

For an older system, like AGP based systems, the extra VC-1 decode support could really help out. A silent, HDCP enabled 2400/2600 AGP might be a nice way to go for HTPC, if someone is making it.

[sub]

I haven't been able to find any Nvidia 8600 or ATI HD 2400/2600 series in AGP. It is good to hear some people have them. I'm always expecting ATI and Nvidia might suddenly change their minds and drop AGP support,even though they annonced support months ago.

I think it was some German users that had them, but I'm sure they'll appear wider soon. I saw this discussion on http://www.avsforum.com/.

I did read that the ATI cards are supposed to enable VC-1 acceleration in addition to the H264. The Nvidia 8-series do not enable VC-1. Not sure if you've seen the article below, but its got good comparison benchmarks. The article shows decode performance and includes an older P4 CPU (plus a C2D X6800 & E4300) in the benchmarks. With the HD 2600XT the P4 never goes above 20% utilization.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047&p=1

For an older system, like AGP based systems, the extra VC-1 decode support could really help out. A silent, HDCP enabled 2400/2600 AGP might be a nice way to go for HTPC, if someone is making it.

I hadnt seen that article, but it was definitely a good read. I really like the look of those CPU usage numbers.

I've got an entirely passive machine in my lounge. Its a great machine, but AGP.

We're going to be using H.264 for our new HDTV system that'll be launching here at the beginning of next year. Also with BluRay/HD-DVD using these codecs, these cards are very attractive to me.

[hendermd]

Circuit City claims to have this VisionTek HD2400 in stock but I never saw it anywhere mentioned that VisionTek was making it. The price is higher than I expected from the little I have read and I think I'll wait on the 2600. Any comments on the quality of VisionTek cards?

I went to the avsforum to post this info and found that someone there bought a 2600 from CC yesterday but was having problems with drivers, so I'll wait and see how it pans out for him.

[sub]

Yeah, thats pretty pricy. I've seen people mentioning about $70 for the Sapphire 2400 pro.

[carrick1973]

So let me get this straight, by using a HVR-1600, the HD OTA signal is encoded on the fly and the CPU is not taxed. By using the ATI 2400 or 2600 card, the decoding is done by the card, and again, the CPU is not taxed. Thus, a lowly P3 or P4 could in theory be used for receiving and watching HD.

Does this apply to watching Blu-Ray discs via the computer? Does the data go straight from the Blu-Ray drive to the video card, or does it have to go through the CPU/Ram, thus being bottlenecked? I'm trying to figure out the best way of going the hi-def route and this seems to be the cheapest way of getting there. Watching hi-def discs may not work however, so this may not be an all-in-one solution. Perhaps this solution is best for OTA and QAM HD content, and a PS3 for movies and games???

Thanks,
Steve

[sub]

So let me get this straight, by using a HVR-1600, the HD OTA signal is encoded on the fly and the CPU is not taxed.

To be precise, the channel was transmitted in an already encoded MPEG2 form, so its effectively just saving directly to disk (minor remuxing does occur, but no reencoding).

By using the ATI 2400 or 2600 card, the decoding is done by the card, and again, the CPU is not taxed. Thus, a lowly P3 or P4 could in theory be used for receiving and watching HD.

In theory these cards greatly reduce the CPU requirements. I couldnt tell you whether it'd work with an old P3 or P4. Most of the stuff I've been reading is about these being used in modern PCs.

That said, there appears to be some HD MPEG2 issues with these card. Hopefully these will be fixed with new drivers. H264/VC1 acceleration seems to perform much better. These codecs are used with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies, and with high definition DVB TV in Europe.

Does this apply to watching Blu-Ray discs via the computer? Does the data go straight from the Blu-Ray drive to the video card, or does it have to go through the CPU/Ram, thus being bottlenecked? I'm trying to figure out the best way of going the hi-def route and this seems to be the cheapest way of getting there. Watching hi-def discs may not work however, so this may not be an all-in-one solution.

Yes, these cards apparently do a good job with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies, using very little CPU. Again, I couldnt tell you whether a P3 would be ok. Just guessing, but I think a moderate to fast P4 would be ok.

[stustunz]

anyone got one of thes ati 2400/2600 cards yet what are your results?

[Squid]

I am in the market for a new video card as I am rebuilding my tv computer. It is currently using a athlon64/3200 and a 9800 pro. It does about 50% cpu when playing previously recorded 1080i content. I am in North American and as such I need a card that will do good with mpeg2 HD OTA content.

Does anybody know if the HD mpeg2 issues with the 2400/2600 are solved? I am not overly sensitive to power requirements or fan noise. I would like it to use less power and not make as much noise, but I would rather it work. Would a 7600 be a better bet? Would the cheapest 7600 be okay (GS?, GT?) ? The 400mhz 256meg one, or does the amount of video memory and clock speed make a big difference for HD decoding?

My current tv computer does okay with an X1300 and an Athlon XP+ 2300. It is not as snappy with the menus and it hates everything but overlay mode so pvrx2 is out of the question. I was hoping my "new" tv computer ( the Athlon64 mentioned above ) will be pvrx2 friendly as well as faster responding to FF/RW requests.

Thanks,
Squid

edit: AGP video card. My "new" tv computer is AGP.

[nbarsley]

I'm in the same boat as squid. Looking for a new agp card and will probably be mostly playing mpeg2 hd. Any word on the driver fix? Would it be better to go with a 7600?

[Squid]

I'm in the same boat as squid.

This thread seems to have clammed up.