H.264 Blu-ray Requires Major Horsepower

[Damion Chaplin]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2886' target='_blank'>http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2886</a><br /><br /></div><i>"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... As for recommendations, based on our testing, we would not suggest anything less than an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 for use in a system designed to play HD content. The E6400 may work well enough, but not even the 8800 GTX can guarantee zero dropped frames on the E6300. ATI owners will want to lean more towards an E6700 processor, but can get away with the E6600 in a pinch. But keep in mind that X-Men: The Last Stand is only one of the first H.264 movies to come out. We may see content that is more difficult to decode in the future, and faster processors are definitely a good place to pad your performance to ensure a quality HD experience on the PC."</i><br /><br />Those of you looking forward to the day you can afford a Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive for your PC should take note: Your current PC probably won't do it. I know mine won't. It would sputter, cough, then BSD. :wink: Personally, I'm thinking HD-DVD on Xbox connected to my MCE in the other room is the way to go. Large as my monitor is, it's still a bit smaller than my TV. My PC has more important things to do anyway. :)

[whydidnt]

Does the XBox GPU have capability to decode the content? I was under the impression that the 360 used a less powerful CPU than most desktops today.

I don't think this is too different than when DVD's came out and PC's at the time had difficulty decoding them smoothly. I seem to remember installing an add-in PCI card to my PC at the time to assist with this function. I think it was from Creative if I remember correctly.

I'm sure it won't be too very long before this can all be adequately supported directly by new CPU's, though. After all both MS and Intel are pushing to the Media Center concept of PC pretty hard right now.

[Damion Chaplin]

Well, details are scant, so someone with more knowledge will have to pipe in here, but from what I can gather, it will certainly have enough capability to decode HD-DVD content up to 1080p. Whether that includes H.264 is what's hard to determine.

As for PC CPUs, you're quite correct. The original PCs that had DVD players could barely, if at all, play movies off them. However, I seem to recall that my PC at the time was capable of it. My current PC will probably not be capable of decoding H.264. The CPU and GPU in an XBox can be less than what's in our PCs and still perform better because it's basically dedicated to doing just a few thing whereas the CPUs in our PCs are designed to be able to process anything programmers can throw at it...

[Felix Torres]

Yes, the 360 can decode H.264; it has to, it is part of the HD-DVD spec, just as VC1 is part of the BD spec. MS licensed a codec from ATI to handle H.264.

As for how its done, well, yes the 360 uses the GPU to assist. But don't be so sure that for *this* kind of code the Xenon CPU is less powerful than a PC CPU; multimedia decoding lends itself to the strengths of the Xenon (and Cell) and does not need the features it lacks, like out-of-order execution.
Even the PS3 can handle H.264 and that is with a weaker GPU and lesser memory bandwidth. H.264 is not all that different from VC1 and that only requires a 3GHz Northwood, which is what the first Toshiba HD-DVD player used to get the job done.

It really won't be long before entry-level PCs can handle blue laser video without eating up the whole CPU. They'll probably get there before the format war is settled...

[Jason Dunn]

I've known this for a while, so it's been pretty funny watching all the anger over lack of HDCP support in video cards and monitors - when the reality is, most people don't have a computer powerful enough to do HD content even if they had the right kind of monitor and GPU...

[Felix Torres]

Come now! People always need *something* to gripe about. *especially* when they have no stake in the issue. :twisted:
Kinda like the folks who rant and rave about DRM though they would never buy content in file form, DRM'ed or not.