Bad News: Another Strike Against Widespread High Definition Adoption

[Jerry Jones]

Link to December 11, 2006 AnandTech Web site article: http://tinyurl.com/2dupkm

We've been hearing for quite some time now that Blu-ray and HDDVD movies could prove to be too much for today's desktop microprocessors; today we finally have the proof. X-Men: The Last Stand encoded using the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile at 1080p requires more processing power to decode than affordable dual core CPUs can handle. We are at a point where GPU decode acceleration is essentially required with all but the highest end processors in order to achieve an acceptable level of quality while watching HD content on the PC.

Uh, oh.

I guess this means everybody is now going to run out and buy a new PC with the super-duper GPU so they can play high definition content on their computers... NOT.



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[schmosef]

I remember when playing MPEG2 or DVD video on a PC REQUIRED a Hollywood Magic or similar decoder card. It didn't take the industry long for CPUs to be able to handle this without special hardware nor for even low end video cards to add video acceleration.

I wouldn't be too worried about this. It's legitimate technical hurdles like this that drive the industry.

Remember when full screen motion video was a big deal?

[Jerry Jones]

Also this December 15 2006 AnandTech article: http://tinyurl.com/2qfofu

Right now the format with the highest potential for pushing hardware beyond its limits is Blu-ray. With 50GB disks possible today, we could see 2+ hour movies with sustained bitrates of 45 Mbps under H.264 which would really push even an X6800 system with an 8800 GTX running the display. Of course, bitrates that high aren't really necessary most of the time, so it won't likely be an issue. But HD-DVD is currently limited to 30GB disks which decreases the potential for high bitrate video (which translates to large file size).

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Dr Mordrid]

OTOH the VC1 codec (WMV-HD) can be played by CPU's and displays with less trouble. M$'s downloadable 720p VC1/5.1 movies for the X-360 only run 5-6 GB and play nicely on it.

Dualcore A64's/Core-2's can certainly play the 1920x1080 HD Terminator 2 VC1 quite nicely at a CPU utilization of ~30-36% and single cores handle 1440x1080 anamorphic though at ~75% CPU utilization.

[agallag]

Yep, I've been really impressed by WMV-HD. It plays quite nicely on my HTPC. A64 3200+/Radeon X700Pro @ 720p is smooth like butter. It even ran decently on my previous HTPC, which was a lowly Athlon XP 1700+/Radeon 9800Pro.

[DGhost]

Remember when MPEG3 audio was a technological hurdle? This is no different.

Biggest reason that this wouldn't be adopted quickly is lack of consumer interest brought on by the incredible pain in the ass the movie industry has made viewing HD content. PC's just make it harder...

[Jerry Jones]

OTOH the VC1 codec (WMV-HD) can be played by CPU's and displays with less trouble. M$'s downloadable 720p VC1/5.1 movies for the X-360 only run 5-6 GB and play nicely on it.

Yep... I've downloaded those and they look very nice.

In fact, I'm content with 720p.

Now, yes, I would prefer 720/60p over 720/30p... a full sixty frames per second... but I'm content with 720p.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Hulk]

I remember when playing MPEG2 or DVD video on a PC REQUIRED a Hollywood Magic or similar decoder card. It didn't take the industry long for CPUs to be able to handle this without special hardware nor for even low end video cards to add video acceleration.

I wouldn't be too worried about this. It's legitimate technical hurdles like this that drive the industry.

Remember when full screen motion video was a big deal?

CPU's are getting faster and cheaper.

Software decoding is getting better.

Hardware decoding via graphics cards is getting better and cheaper.

I don't think most people that buy a BR player put it on their old outdated computer. Most people on the leading edge know what they're doing. By the time BR players are mainstream in computers (or HD-DVD) the graphics cards, processors, and software will be up to the task.

I forgot to add this, and it's VERY IMPORTANT when looking at the results.

The scene they were using for the testing has a bitrate peak of 41mbps!!! That's really high. And even then a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo could decode the scene natively and an E6600 was very close to doing it. The E6600 is currently $320.

Plus there is always new software being developed like this one for $15.
http://www.coreavc.com/index.php?opt...d=15&Itemid=29

I personally like the fact that the software is on par with today's fastest cpu's and all of the part 10 features are even being utilized so the studios can add more features as the available hardware and software becomes more powerful.

[Jerry Jones]

As I've said before, I think it's going to take about five years before computer hardware and the HDTVs themselves are sufficiently advanced to warrant an upgrade.

So much of the early stuff is just slow junk for people who can afford to blow cash on toys that are broken right out of the box.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net