ATI Catalyst 10.7 accelerate video playback in VLC Media Player

VLC 1.1.0 adds GPU acceleration

The latest version of popular open-source media player VLC has been released, and it brings with it hardware acceleration features for Windows and Linux users - a distinct boon for those with under-powered machines.

VLC 1.1.0 - released yesterday, according to CrunchGear- now features hardware decoding of H.264 video under Windows Vista and Windows 7 on Nvidia hardware and under Linux on ATI or Nvidia hardware. Sadly, users of Windows versions prior to Vista - such as the still-popular Windows XP - are left out in the cold on this one, as are those using Apple systems.

However, those of you lucky enough to be running a supported operating system with a supported graphics card can enjoy greatly reduced CPU load at the same time as massively enhanced playback performance thanks to an offload engine that makes the GPU pick up the grunt work.

For those wondering why Windows users are limited to Nvidia hardware - after all, both ATI and Nvidia support GPGPU and GPU-offload technologies - it's apparently a driver issue. In the release notes for version 1.1.0, the VLC team claims that "VideoLAN is quite sad to be forced to recommend Nvidia [GPUs], until ATI fixes their drivers on Windows." :banana:

Sadly, the platforms most likely to benefit from GPU offloading of H.264 decoding are not invited to the party either: as the majority of netbooks feature weedy Atom processors and business-oriented Intel graphics, VLC won't do much good for HD playback there.

Still, if your system supports the feature it's certainly worth giving the - completely free - VLC Player a go by downloading it from the official site.

Are you pleased to see open-source packages adding in GPU acceleration features, or are you confused as to why the VLC team has been unable to make H.264 hardware decoding work on ATI cards under Windows? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2010/06/23/vlc-1-1-0-adds-gpu-acceleration/1

"VideoLAN will have a VLC player update coming soon to work with the upcoming Cat 10.7 coming soon. Everything works good - all coming soon"
http://twitter.com/catalystmaker

Newspage in german:
http://www.tweakpc.de/news/18913/ati-catalyst-10-7-beschleunigt-videos-im-vlc-media-player/

 

So let me get this straight is it only H.264 video that will be off loaded to the GPU or will every single video type that I play (such as .avi) be off loaded to the GPU as well?

 

if you want every single video type you play to be offloaded to the gpu, use media player classic and set it to evr mode. it will use your gpu instead of cpu, as well as allowing the use of pixel shaders to add post processing effects to the video, such as deblocking, sharpening, etc. its been using gpus for years now.

 

changelog:

Changes between 1.1.0 and 1.1.1:
--------------------------------
- Decoders:
* Fix performance issues with GPU decoding using DxVA2 using ATI graphic cards
You NEED ATI Catalyst 10.7

Changes between 1.0.6 and 1.1.0:
--------------------------------
Decoders:
* Support for DxVA2 for H.264 decoding on GPU on Windows Vista and 7
* Support for VAAPI for H.264 decoding on GPU on GNU/Linux


http://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc-branch/NEWS

so it seems H.264 only.

 

Solution

Use Media Player Classic Home Cinema or ArcSoft Media Player with SimHD

 

MPC-HC is by far the best player and it's free and has plenty of shader options to make things look better and has been GPU supported for a fair amount of time now I never use anything else.

 

^
This

They are focusing this release of Catalyst only to fix that crap that most of the ppl don't use? :bang:
OMG.

 

MPC HomeCinema has DVXA 2 inbuilt and I used it to offload H.264 decoding to my HD4570M..

I tried playing a Full HD movie without and with DVXA and CPU usage drops from 30% to around 3%!!

 

So what other format needs GPU acceleration? mpeg2, mpeg4 (not AVC) and so forth can be played on the cpu without breaking a sweat. What would be nice however is mpeg4 AVC encoding on the GPU. And I don't mean Badaboom or Avivo, but something with a lot more quality.

 

Wanna bet that in 10.7 they will fix the VLC issues but will completely break MPC-HC for all of us? c1:

 

Or I could just keep using WMP12 with the Haali Media Splitter as that offloads all the movies I'd ever play anyway.

 

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic_Home_Cinema.htm

I dont think so because MPC-HC team are much more experience in keeping their video player in shape they knew what they are doing. They are not like ATI idiots who break something to fix other thing..I just hope CAT 10.7 will bring smile on not just gamers but also movie lovers.

 

Wow. I just downloaded the home thing, and it's the most incredible video player ever. I get a file and click for it to go somewhere, it's instant. Thanks a ton.

 

+1 for Media Player Classic Home Cinema.

 

So if I DL MPC-HC v1.3.1249, I can run all my movies on it, pushed via the GPU. What formats are not supported, or is it just HD content. Also what all needs to be done to enable GPU processing, any files, codecs..?

 

Read more here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/accelerate-x264-1080p-movies-over-the-gpu-guide/3

 

http://www.xvidvideo.ru/media-playe...ayer-classic-homecinema-x86-x64-svn-2090.html

This is the most current build.

 

Whats better powerdvd 10 or MPC-HC ?

 

MPC-HC
btw the new XBMC nightly build works perfectly with DXVA2

 

Sorry if i sound nubish, but what does this accelerate video playback do/improve??