I have a HTPC equipped with XB360 HD-DVD drive, Nvidia 8800GTS video card and PowerDVD Ultra. I have just upgraded to Vista and so far everything is running smoothly.

A question that I can never seem to find the answer to is this:

Do I need to install the Purevideo codec to enable Purevideo HD acceleration or are the codecs built into the Nvidia drivers and/or Powerdvd software?

TIA

[PAH]

I've been wondering that too. Seems there's confusion due to Nvidia's naming practices and wording on their websites. Maybe an email to them to clarify is needed as I've been told on this forum you need to buy their PureVideo player to get the codec but on Nvidia's website it says it appears to be included in the latest forceware for vista.

BTW have you got the XB360 HD-DVD drive working under Vista? I wouldn't mind doing that myself, certainly a cheap way of getting HD-DVD without having to put up with the noise from the X-Box 360! Can you point me to info of what's involved, assuming it's more than just plugging it into a usb port and installing a driver. Thanks.

It's simply a case of plugging the XB360 HD-DVD drive into a spare USB port and letting Vista install drivers automatically.

Then you need to install PowerDVD Ultra, which supports HD-DVD, and you should be set.

Obviously the above assumes you have a PC with an HDCP graphics card, and also a HDCP compliant display connected via DVI or HDMI.

I think the Vista drivers for my graphics card are a bit flaky at the moment. There doesn't seem to be any adjustments for the video side of things, hence my question about Purevideo.

[peskywinnets]

I've never known so much confusion over a product line....what were Nvidia thinking?!!!

An Nvidia driver ...this ought to be simple enough, except there's a huge number of versions about some compatible with the HD, some not.

An Nvideo DVD decoder Codec that doesn't necessarily work with just DVDs (but also for example harddisk media files). Also the different version 9gold platinum), from what I can gather just give you different audio decoding capability? They're related page talks about H.264 (HD), butthen makes no mention of what you actually needto get rocking....

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo.html

An NvidiaPure HD....***? still don't know what that means!

[PAH]

Dazzlercee, thanks for the info on the Xbox HD drive. Found the following link on another thread that clears it up nicely, might give it a try when the actual drives become easier to get hold of! Though it can't be long before we see internal HD-DVD drives becoming available for HTPCs, hopefully at reasonable prices too.

http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-comput...x360-hd-dvd-pc

I think you're right about the nvidia vista drivers. I get a lot more options under XP than I do on Vista, put it down to using Vista RTM drivers on the older RC2 I've got installed. Says in the text not to use on older versions of Vista, but it still works to a point. The RC2 version of forceware wouldn't download


As peskywinnets says, Nvidia aren't exactly making it clear what we should be using. Hopefully we'll get some definitive answers soon or a new set of forceware that does everything we need. In the meantime I'm going to upgrade to the proper release of Vista so at least the latest drivers and any forthcoming ones might work properly.

It would help if the PureVideo player was available for trial download so we could see if it's worth using or offers nothing substantial over the forceware stuff. Anybody got the PureVideo player and got any thoughts on it over Vista MCE, Theatretek, PowerDVD, etc?

[Valley]

You can download a 30 day trial of Purevideo from here

Theatretek does come with the purevideo codec already installed though

[dejongj]

Originally Posted by PAH

It would help if the PureVideo player was available for trial download so we could see if it's worth using or offers nothing substantial over the forceware stuff. Anybody got the PureVideo player and got any thoughts on it over Vista MCE, Theatretek, PowerDVD, etc?

Don't understand what you mean by Purevideo player, I've never come across something like that....It is really simple...

nVidia Force - Graphics drivers for nVidia cards only

nVidia Purevideo Software - Codec necessary to play MPEG material; i.e. DVD's. Later (current) versions can also handle HD-DVD and Blue-Ray, it was already able to do Transport Streams (.ts) which is mainly MPEG2 and some H.264 encoding. You don't need an nVidia graphics card to use this software, however if you have an nVidia Graphics card and a current Forceware version for the drivers and the Purevideo chip (simplified way of describing it) as not all nVidia graphics cards have the same capabilities. Then the software can use hardware accelleration and thus reducing the load on your CPU. If you have an ATI card for example you can still use the Purevideo software codec which is still good quality but don't get the hardware accellaration capabilities that you do get with some nVidia cards.

Now in order to actually watch anything, you require player software and this is where Windows Media Player comes in (which is what I use) or some people prefer others....

Hope this clarifies it a little...

[PAH]

Yeah it's becoming a little clearer.

Found this site that has some useful info about PureVideo and PureVideo HD:

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_pvhd_build.html

Also this comparison of features between ATI's Avivo and Nvidia's PureVideo:

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/01/09...-uk/index.html

So it looks like if you've got a compatible geforce card you can have PureVideo/PureVideo HD without having to purchase the codec as it's in the latest versions of forceware.

If you don't have a geforce card you can still use PureVideo via the codec available either supplied with some players or from the link supplied by Valley.

To make use of PureVideo HD (which is for Blu-Ray or HD-DVD) you need some of the new player software with HD support built-in from PowerDVD, WinDVD or other popular alternatives, as and when they become available. As far as I know either PowerDVD 6.5 HD or PowerDVD 7 Ultra will do, no idea about the others.

[dejongj]

Originally Posted by PAH

YSo it looks like if you've got a compatible geforce card you can have PureVideo/PureVideo HD without having to purchase the codec as it's in the latest versions of forceware.

Nope that is still not correct, I can say from experience that nVdia is not giving away the Purevideo codec for free with their forceware drivers. It is a separate product....You are mixing up the ability to hardware accelerate with a CODEC which is very different software....

But it is not surprising as what you probably didn't know is that in earlier version of Forceware nVidia wasn't providing hardware acceleration, daft but true.....

[Tom Whitaker]

I'm looking into this now and this thread still doesn't quite answer my question.

So, the latest Forceware and PowerDVD 7 Ultra combined are all I need for hardware-accelerated HD/BD content on my 8600GT?

And I'm not getting the PureVideo CODEC?

That's how I understand it from what's posted above. But why then would anyone buy the PureVideo codec? What's so special about it?

In my current setup, I can tick "Enable Hardware Acceleration" in PowerDVD while playing an HD-DVD.

[elootos]

Purevideo is a software MPEG codec that is an option to you if your system does not have an MPEG codec already (like XP Media Center).

Vista has an MPEG codec of its own so Purevideo has been phased out by nVidia.

Purevideo HD is a hardware form of it that nVidia have put on its current graphics cards that help a less powerful PC decode HD material. It is a next-generation of Purevideo that is now solely hardware based. If your PC is powerful enough then you don't need Hardware Acceleration enabled, in fact I find I have better performance without it.

This is my understanding of it all. Hope it helps.