Nvidia PureVideo
Encyclopedia
Nvidia
PureVideo is a hardware feature designed to offload video decoding processes and video post-processing
from a computer's CPU hardware to Nvidia's GPU hardware series GeForce 6
and later, GeForce M series (formerly known as GeForce Go); and Nvidia Quadro
series. PureVideo is designed to work with media playback software, it can also be used for the decoding process of transcoding software. Nvidia's proprietary
device driver
s for Windows
, Linux
, Solaris and FreeBSD
are PureVideo-enabled; with the appropriate (PureVideo-enabled) application software, the Nvidia driver will automatically use whatever hardware-acceleration is available on the Nvidia display-adapter.
All software HD DVD/Blu-ray players, as well as most software DVD players, are PureVideo-enabled. Microsoft's
Windows Media Player
and Windows Media Center
also support Nvidia's PureVideo technology. Nvidia also sells its own PureVideo decoder software (which is a source of confusion, as Nvidia's decoder is not required and not used by third-party players), which serves as a DVD player with advanced post-processing capabilities. The degree of PureVideo's capabilities varies by generation.
In November 2008 Nvidia released a beta version of a closed-source device driver and open-source API
called VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix)
with PureVideo support for Linux
, FreeBSD
and Solaris.
and Blu-ray Disc
playback, to comply with the requirements for playing Blu-ray/HD DVDs on PC:
. Based on the GeForce FX
's video-engine (VPE), PureVideo re-used the MPEG-1/MPEG-2 decoding pipeline, and improved the quality of deinterlacing and overlay-resizing. Compatibility with DirectX 9's VMR9 renderer was also improved. Other VPE features, such as the MPEG-1/MPEG-2 decoding pipeline were left unchanged. Nvidia's press material cited hardware acceleration for VC-1
and H.264 video, but these features were not present at launch.
Starting with the release of the GeForce 6600, PureVideo added hardware acceleration for VC-1
and H.264 video, though the level of acceleration is limited when benchmarked side by side with MPEG-2
video. VPE (and PureVideo) offloads the entire MPEG-2 pipeline (except the initial run length decoding, variable length decoding, and inverse transform), whereas first-generation PureVideo offered limited VC-1 assistance (motion-compensation).
The first generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 1" or VP1, although this is not an official Nvidia designation.
), Nvidia substantially re-designed the H.264 decoding block inside its GPUs. The second generation PureVideo HD added a dedicated bitstream processor (BSP) and enhanced video processor, which enabled the GPU to completely offload the H.264-decoding pipeline. VC-1 acceleration was also improved, with PureVideo HD now able to offload more of VC-1-decoding pipeline's backend (inverse discrete cosine transform (iDCT) and motion compensation stages). The frontend (bitstream) pipeline is still decoded by the host CPU.
The second generation PureVideo HD enabled mainstream PCs to play HD DVD and Blu-ray movies, as the majority of the processing-intenstive video-decoding was now offloaded to the GPU.
The second generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 2" or VP2, although this is not an official Nvidia designation. It corresponds to Nvidia VDPAU
Feature Set A.
format: MPEG-2, VC-1, and H.264.
All third generation PureVideo hardware (G98, MCP77, MCP78, MCP79MX, MCP7A) cannot decode H.264 for the following horizontal resolutions: 769–784, 849–864, 929–944, 1009–1024, 1793–1808, 1873–1888, 1953–1968 and 2033–2048 pixel
The third generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 3" or VP3, although this is not an official Nvidia designation. It corresponds to Nvidia VDPAU Feature Set B.
, a H.264 extension used on 3D Blu-ray discs. The same features are also supported by later GPUs.
The fourth generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 4" or VP4, although this is not an official Nvidia designation. It corresponds to Nvidia VDPAU Feature Set C (which due to a missing API currently does not support decoding MVC).
It is also capable of decoding 4K x 2K videos.
The fifth generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 5" or VP5, although this is not an official Nvidia designation. This generation of PureVideo HD corresponds to Nvidia VDPAU Feature set D which due to limitations in all current VDPAU drivers does not support decoding higher resolutions than 2048x2048.
In 2006, PureVideo HD was formally introduced with the launch of the GeForce 7900, which had the first generation PureVideo HD. In 2007, when the second generation PureVideo HD (VP2) hardware launched with the Geforce 8500 GT/8600 GT/8600 GTS, Nvidia expanded Purevideo HD to include both the first generation (retroactively called "PureVideo HD 1" or VP1) GPUs (Geforce 7900/8800 GTX) and newer VP2 GPUs. This led to a confusing product portfolio containing GPUs from two distinctly different generational capabilities: the newer VP2 based cores (Geforce 8500 GT/8600 GT/8600 GTS/8800 GT) and other older PureVideo HD 1 based cores (Geforce 7900/G80).
Nvidia claims that all GPUs carrying the PureVideo HD label fully support Blu-ray/HD DVD playback with the proper system components. For H.264/AVC content, VP1 offers markedly inferior acceleration compared to newer GPUs, placing a much greater burden on the host CPU. However, a sufficiently fast host CPU can play Blu-ray without any hardware assistance whatsoever.
(UVD) is comparable to third-generation PureVideo HD (VP3) in terms of video-decode acceleration. Benchmarks previously conducted by AnandTech
found UVD to outperform VP2 in VC-1 playback.
s, minimum width and height 48 pixels, and all codecs are currently limited to a maximum of 8192 macroblock
s (8190 for VC-1/WMV9).
Partial acceleration means that VLD
(bitstream) decoding is performed on the CPU, with the GPU
only performing IDCT
, motion compensation
and deblocking. Complete acceleration means that the GPU performs all of VLD, IDCT, motion compensation and deblocking.
Feature Set A
Feature Set B
Feature Set C & D
that is supported by the graphic driver and the operating system
. Every software that supports - depending on hardware and operating system - DXVA
, XvMC
, VDPAU
or VideoToolBox (directly or via Video Decode Acceleration Framework) can use PureVideo's capabilites.
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
PureVideo is a hardware feature designed to offload video decoding processes and video post-processing
Video post-processing
The term post-processing is used in the video/film business for quality-improvement image processing methods used in video playback devices, , and video players software and transcoding software...
from a computer's CPU hardware to Nvidia's GPU hardware series GeForce 6
GeForce 6 Series
The GeForce 6 Series is Nvidia's sixth generation of GeForce graphic processing units. Launched on April 14, 2004, the GeForce 6 family introduced PureVideo post-processing for video, SLI technology, and Shader Model 3.0 support .-GeForce 6 Series features:-SLI:The Scalable Link...
and later, GeForce M series (formerly known as GeForce Go); and Nvidia Quadro
NVIDIA Quadro
The Nvidia Quadro series of AGP, PCI, and PCI Express graphics cards comes from the NVIDIA Corporation. Their designers aimed to accelerate CAD and DCC , and the cards are usually featured in workstations....
series. PureVideo is designed to work with media playback software, it can also be used for the decoding process of transcoding software. Nvidia's proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
device driver
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
s for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Solaris and FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
are PureVideo-enabled; with the appropriate (PureVideo-enabled) application software, the Nvidia driver will automatically use whatever hardware-acceleration is available on the Nvidia display-adapter.
All software HD DVD/Blu-ray players, as well as most software DVD players, are PureVideo-enabled. Microsoft's
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
and Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
also support Nvidia's PureVideo technology. Nvidia also sells its own PureVideo decoder software (which is a source of confusion, as Nvidia's decoder is not required and not used by third-party players), which serves as a DVD player with advanced post-processing capabilities. The degree of PureVideo's capabilities varies by generation.
In November 2008 Nvidia released a beta version of a closed-source device driver and open-source API
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
called VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix)
VDPAU
VDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by Nvidia for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
with PureVideo support for Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
and Solaris.
PureVideo HD
PureVideo HD (see "naming confusions" below) is a label which identifies Nvidia graphics boards certified for HD DVDHD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
and Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
playback, to comply with the requirements for playing Blu-ray/HD DVDs on PC:
- End-to-end encryption (HDCP) for digital-displays (DVI-D/HDMI)
- Realtime decoding of H.264 high-profile L4.1, VC-1VC-1VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard, which was initially developed as a proprietary video format by Microsoft before it was released as a formal SMPTE standard video format on April 3, 2006...
Advanced Profile L3, and MPEG-2 MP@HL (1080p30) decoding @ 40 Mbps - Realtime dual-video stream decoding for HD DVD/Blu-ray Picture-in-Picture (primary video @ 1080p, secondary video @ 480p)
The First Generation PureVideo HD
The original PureVideo engine was introduced with the GeForce 6 seriesGeForce 6 Series
The GeForce 6 Series is Nvidia's sixth generation of GeForce graphic processing units. Launched on April 14, 2004, the GeForce 6 family introduced PureVideo post-processing for video, SLI technology, and Shader Model 3.0 support .-GeForce 6 Series features:-SLI:The Scalable Link...
. Based on the GeForce FX
GeForce FX
The GeForce FX or "GeForce 5" series is a line of graphics processing units from the manufacturer NVIDIA.-Overview:...
's video-engine (VPE), PureVideo re-used the MPEG-1/MPEG-2 decoding pipeline, and improved the quality of deinterlacing and overlay-resizing. Compatibility with DirectX 9's VMR9 renderer was also improved. Other VPE features, such as the MPEG-1/MPEG-2 decoding pipeline were left unchanged. Nvidia's press material cited hardware acceleration for VC-1
VC-1
VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard, which was initially developed as a proprietary video format by Microsoft before it was released as a formal SMPTE standard video format on April 3, 2006...
and H.264 video, but these features were not present at launch.
Starting with the release of the GeForce 6600, PureVideo added hardware acceleration for VC-1
VC-1
VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard, which was initially developed as a proprietary video format by Microsoft before it was released as a formal SMPTE standard video format on April 3, 2006...
and H.264 video, though the level of acceleration is limited when benchmarked side by side with MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
video. VPE (and PureVideo) offloads the entire MPEG-2 pipeline (except the initial run length decoding, variable length decoding, and inverse transform), whereas first-generation PureVideo offered limited VC-1 assistance (motion-compensation).
The first generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 1" or VP1, although this is not an official Nvidia designation.
The Second Generation PureVideo HD
Starting with the G84/G86 GPUs (sold as the GeForce 8400/8500/8600 seriesGeForce 8 Series
The GeForce 8 Series, is the eighth generation of NVIDIA's GeForce line of graphics processing units. The third major GPU architecture developed at NVIDIA, the GeForce 8 represents the company's first unified shader architecture.-Naming:...
), Nvidia substantially re-designed the H.264 decoding block inside its GPUs. The second generation PureVideo HD added a dedicated bitstream processor (BSP) and enhanced video processor, which enabled the GPU to completely offload the H.264-decoding pipeline. VC-1 acceleration was also improved, with PureVideo HD now able to offload more of VC-1-decoding pipeline's backend (inverse discrete cosine transform (iDCT) and motion compensation stages). The frontend (bitstream) pipeline is still decoded by the host CPU.
The second generation PureVideo HD enabled mainstream PCs to play HD DVD and Blu-ray movies, as the majority of the processing-intenstive video-decoding was now offloaded to the GPU.
The second generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 2" or VP2, although this is not an official Nvidia designation. It corresponds to Nvidia VDPAU
VDPAU
VDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by Nvidia for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
Feature Set A.
The Third Generation PureVideo HD
This implementation of PureVideo HD, VP3 added entropy hardware to offload VC-1 bitstream decoding with the G98 GPU (sold as GeForce 8400GS), as well as additional minor enhancements for the MPEG-2 decoding block. The functionality of the H.264-decoding pipeline was left unchanged. In essence, VP3 offers complete hardware-decoding for all 3 video codecs of the Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
format: MPEG-2, VC-1, and H.264.
All third generation PureVideo hardware (G98, MCP77, MCP78, MCP79MX, MCP7A) cannot decode H.264 for the following horizontal resolutions: 769–784, 849–864, 929–944, 1009–1024, 1793–1808, 1873–1888, 1953–1968 and 2033–2048 pixel
The third generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 3" or VP3, although this is not an official Nvidia designation. It corresponds to Nvidia VDPAU Feature Set B.
The Fourth Generation PureVideo HD
This implementation of PureVideo HD, VP4 added hardware to offload MPEG-4 (Advanced) Simple Profile bitstream decoding with the GT215, GT216 & GT218 GPUs (sold as GeForce GT 240, GeForce GT 220 & GeForce 210/G210). The H.264-decoder no longer suffers the framesize restrictions of VP3, and adds hardware-acceleration for MVCMultiview Video Coding
Multiview Video Coding is an amendment to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression standard developed with joint efforts by MPEG/VCEG that enables efficient encoding of sequences captured simultaneously from multiple cameras using a single video stream....
, a H.264 extension used on 3D Blu-ray discs. The same features are also supported by later GPUs.
The fourth generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 4" or VP4, although this is not an official Nvidia designation. It corresponds to Nvidia VDPAU Feature Set C (which due to a missing API currently does not support decoding MVC).
The Fifth Generation PureVideo HD
The fifth generation of PureVideo HD, introduced with the Geforce GT 520, has significantly improved performance when decoding H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 codecs (and, probably, other too) and provided TrueHD and DTS-HD Audio Bitstreaming Support.It is also capable of decoding 4K x 2K videos.
The fifth generation PureVideo HD is sometimes called "PureVideo HD 5" or VP5, although this is not an official Nvidia designation. This generation of PureVideo HD corresponds to Nvidia VDPAU Feature set D which due to limitations in all current VDPAU drivers does not support decoding higher resolutions than 2048x2048.
Naming confusion
Because the introduction and subsequent rollout of PureVideo technology was not synchronized with Nvidia's GPU release schedule, the exact capabilities of PureVideo technology and their supported Nvidia GPUs led to a considerable customer confusion. The first generation PureVideo GPUs (GeForce 6 series) spanned a wide range of capabilities. On the low-end of GeForce 6 series (6200), PureVideo was limited to standard-definition content (720x576). The mainstream and high-end of the GeForce 6 series was split between older products (6800 GT) which did not accelerate H.264/VC-1 at all, and newer products (6600 GT) with added VC-1/H.264 offloading capability.In 2006, PureVideo HD was formally introduced with the launch of the GeForce 7900, which had the first generation PureVideo HD. In 2007, when the second generation PureVideo HD (VP2) hardware launched with the Geforce 8500 GT/8600 GT/8600 GTS, Nvidia expanded Purevideo HD to include both the first generation (retroactively called "PureVideo HD 1" or VP1) GPUs (Geforce 7900/8800 GTX) and newer VP2 GPUs. This led to a confusing product portfolio containing GPUs from two distinctly different generational capabilities: the newer VP2 based cores (Geforce 8500 GT/8600 GT/8600 GTS/8800 GT) and other older PureVideo HD 1 based cores (Geforce 7900/G80).
Nvidia claims that all GPUs carrying the PureVideo HD label fully support Blu-ray/HD DVD playback with the proper system components. For H.264/AVC content, VP1 offers markedly inferior acceleration compared to newer GPUs, placing a much greater burden on the host CPU. However, a sufficiently fast host CPU can play Blu-ray without any hardware assistance whatsoever.
Other hardware acceleration technology
ATI's competing Unified Video DecoderUnified Video Decoder
The Unified Video Decoder, previously called Universal Video Decoder, or UVD in short, is the video decoding unit from ATI Technologies to support hardware decode of H.264 and VC-1 video codec standards, and being a part of ATI Avivo HD technology....
(UVD) is comparable to third-generation PureVideo HD (VP3) in terms of video-decode acceleration. Benchmarks previously conducted by AnandTech
AnandTech
AnandTech is an online computer hardware magazine. It was founded in 1997 by then 15-year-old Anand Lal Shimpi, who is the current editor-in-chief and CEO. The web site is recommended as a good resource of hardware reviews for off-the-shelf components addressed to computer building enthusiasts...
found UVD to outperform VP2 in VC-1 playback.
Table of PureVideo (HD) GPUs
| Board Name | Core Type | PureVideo HD | VDPAU feature set | First Release Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce 6 series | NV4x | VP1 | Not Supported | NV40-based models of the 6800 do not accelerate VC-1/H.264 | |
| GeForce 7 series | G7x | VP1 | Not Supported | - | |
| GeForce 8800 Ultra, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS (320/640 MB) | G80 | VP1 | Not Supported | November 2006 | - |
| GeForce 8400 GS, 8500 GT | G86 | VP2 | A | April 2007 | - |
| GeForce 8600 GT, 8600 GTS | G84 | VP2 | A | April 2007 | - |
| GeForce 8800 GS, 8800 GT, 8800 GTS (512 MB/1 GB) | G92 | VP2 | A | October 2007 | - |
| GeForce 8400 GS | G98 | VP3 | B | December 2007 | Earlier cards use G86 core type without VP3 support |
| GeForce 8200, 8300 | C77 | VP3 | B | January 2008 | Not suitable for running CUDA |
| GeForce 9600 GSO 512, 9600 GT | G94 | VP2 | A | February 2008 | - |
| GeForce 9600 GSO, 9800 GT, 9800 GTX, 9800 GTX+, 9800 GX2 | G92 | VP2 | A | March 2008 | - |
| GeForce GTX 260, GTX 275, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295 | GT200 | VP2 | A | June 2008 | - |
| GeForce 9400 GT, 9500 GT | G96 | VP2 | A | July 2008 | - |
| GeForce 9300M GS, 9300 GS, 9300 GE | G98 | VP3 | B | October 2008 | Mostly found in laptops and on motherboards |
| GeForce 205, 210/G210, 310, G210M, 305M, 310M | GT218 | VP4 | C | October 2009 | Introduced decoding of MPEG-4 (Advanced) Simple Profile (Divx/Xvid) |
| GeForce GT 220, 315, GT 230M, GT 240M, GT 325M, GT 330M | GT216 | VP4 | C | October 2009 | - |
| GeForce GT 240, GT 320, GT 340, GTS 250M, GTS 260M, GT 335M, GTS 350M, GTS 360M | GT215 | VP4 | C | November 2009 | - |
| GeForce GTX 465, GTX 470, GTX 480, GTX 480M | GF100 | VP4 | C | March 2010 | - |
| GeForce GTX 460, GTX 470M | GF104 | VP4 | C | July 2010 | - |
| GeForce GTS 450, GT 445M, GTX 460M, GT 555M | GF106 | VP4 | C | September 2010 | - |
| GeForce GT 420 OEM, GT 430, GT 440, GT 415M, GT 420M, GT 425M, GT 435M, GT525M, GT 540M, GT 550M | GF108 | VP4 | C | September 2010 | - |
| GeForce GTX 570, GTX 580 | GF110 | VP4 | C | November 2010 | - |
| GeForce GTX 570M, GTX 580M | GF114 | VP4 | C | January 2011 | - |
| GeForce GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560M | GF116 | VP4 | C | March 2011 | - |
| GeForce 410M, GT 520 | GF119 | VP5 | D | April 2011 | Introduced 4K video decoding and HD audio bitstreaming support |
| ION, ION-LE | C79 | VP3 | B | - | |
| NEXT-GENERATION ION | GT218 | VP4 | C | - |
Nvidia VDPAU Feature Sets
Nvidia VDPAU Feature Sets are different hardware generations of Nvidia GPU's supporting different levels of hardware decoding capabilities. For all the current feature sets from Nvidia, the maximum video width and height are 2048 pixelPixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s, minimum width and height 48 pixels, and all codecs are currently limited to a maximum of 8192 macroblock
Macroblock
Macroblock is an image compression component and technique based on discrete cosine transform used on still images and video frames. Macroblocks are usually composed of two or more blocks of pixels. In the JPEG standard macroblocks are called MCU blocks....
s (8190 for VC-1/WMV9).
Partial acceleration means that VLD
Variable-length code
In coding theory a variable-length code is a code which maps source symbols to a variable number of bits.Variable-length codes can allow sources to be compressed and decompressed with zero error and still be read back symbol by symbol...
(bitstream) decoding is performed on the CPU, with the GPU
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
only performing IDCT
Discrete cosine transform
A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform...
, motion compensation
Motion compensation
Motion compensation is an algorithmic technique employed in the encoding of video data for video compression, for example in the generation of MPEG-2 files. Motion compensation describes a picture in terms of the transformation of a reference picture to the current picture. The reference picture...
and deblocking. Complete acceleration means that the GPU performs all of VLD, IDCT, motion compensation and deblocking.
Feature Set A
- Complete acceleration for H.264H.264/MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
- Partial acceleration for MPEG-1, MPEG-2H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2H.262 or MPEG-2 Part 2 is a digital video compression and encoding standard developed and maintained jointly by ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group . It is the second part of the ISO/IEC MPEG-2 standard...
, VC-1VC-1VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard, which was initially developed as a proprietary video format by Microsoft before it was released as a formal SMPTE standard video format on April 3, 2006...
/WMV9
Feature Set B
- Complete acceleration for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VC-1/WMV9 and H.264.
- All feature set B hardware cannot decode H.264 for the following widths: 769-784, 849-864, 929-944, 1009-1024, 1793-1808, 1873-1888, 1953-1968, 2033-2048 pixels.
Feature Set C & D
- Complete acceleration for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2 (a.k.a MPEG-4 ASP)MPEG-4 Part 2MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 Visual is a video compression technology developed by MPEG. It belongs to the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC standards. It is a discrete cosine transform compression standard, similar to previous standards such as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2...
, VC-1/WMV9 and H.264. - Global motion compensationGlobal Motion CompensationGlobal motion compensation is a technique used in video compression to reduce the bitrate required to encode video. It is most commonly used in MPEG-4 ASP, such as with the DivX and Xvid codecs.-Operation:...
and Data Partitioning are not supported for MPEG-4 Part 2.
Software support
Media players (and video converters) cannot directly support PureVideo, but must implement an APIApplication programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
that is supported by the graphic driver and the operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. Every software that supports - depending on hardware and operating system - DXVA
DXVA
DirectX Video Acceleration is a Microsoft API specification for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms that allows video decoding to be hardware accelerated. The pipeline allows certain CPU-intensive operations such as iDCT, motion compensation and deinterlacing to be offloaded to the GPU...
, XvMC
XvMC
X-Video Motion Compensation , is an extension of the X video extension for the X Window System. The XvMC API allows video programs to offload portions of the video decoding process to the GPU video-hardware. In theory this process should also reduce bus bandwidth requirements...
, VDPAU
VDPAU
VDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by Nvidia for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
or VideoToolBox (directly or via Video Decode Acceleration Framework) can use PureVideo's capabilites.
See also
- DirectX Video Acceleration (DxVA) API for Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
operating-system. - VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix) from NvidiaVDPAUVDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by Nvidia for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
- X-Video Motion Compensation (XvMC) API for Linux/UNIX operating-system.
- AVIVOAVIVOATI Avivo is a set of hardware and low level software features present on the ATI Radeon R520 family of GPUs and all later ATI Radeon products. ATI Avivo was designed to offload video decoding, encoding, and post-processing from a computer's CPU to a compatible GPU...
- a competing technology from ATI/AMDATI TechnologiesATI Technologies Inc. was a semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technologies Inc., the company was listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by Advanced Micro...
for use with their graphics chips.