Nvidia announced the immediate availability of new Nvidia PureVideo technology enabling support for high-definition video including hardware acceleration for content based on the H.264 specification.
H.264, which is also known as the Advanced Video Codec (AVC) specification or MPEG-4 Part 10, is one of the digital video codecs specified for the Blu-ray [not used again] and HD DVD formats. H.264 delivers two to three times the compression efficiency of the MPEG-2 standard, which is used to create current DVD videos. H.264 has been adopted by both the DVD Forum for HD DVDs and the Blu-ray Disc Association for Blu-ray Discs, and VC-1 has also been adopted by the DVD Forum for HD DVDs.
Nvidia PureVideo technology provides hardware acceleration for decoding H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 movies and performs post processing techniques on the decoded high definition content, including spatial-temporal de-interlacing and inverse telecine. According to Nvidia, the PureVideo discrete video processing core offloads the CPU and 3D engine of complex video tasks, freeing the PC to run multiple applications simultaneously.
Nvidia said consumers with PCs built with the following of its products will be able to watch high-definition videos and DVDs with a high level of visual quality and performance: GeForce 7-series of GPUs for the desktop and notebook PC; GeForce 6-series of GPUs for the desktop and notebook PC and nForce 6150 family of integrated GPUs.
"With the introduction of our latest version of PureVideo technology, NVIDIA is enabling a new era of high-definition movie and television viewing on a PC," said Scott Vouri, general manager of multimedia products at NVIDIA. "While it seems as if the rest of the industry focuses on improving standard definition processing capabilities, we are providing consumers with the high-definition video processing and acceleration."
Nvidia has been working closely with InterVideo, CyberLink and Nero software to include NVIDIA PureVideo acceleration and post-processing in their H.264 codecs.