Thinkpads Forum

Hi folks,

does anyone know if any of T61's nvidia GPUs are capable of accelerating HD video content, in AVCHD?

I'd love to get a T61 / T61p and an AVCHD video camera, and be able to properly display the footage on it.

As far as I understand, Nvidia incorporated the updated PureVideo HD 2 engine (an independent video processor on the video card) capable of offloading the CPU nearly 100% when using the right codec (Cyberlink noticeably) on their 8400 / 8500 / 8600 GPUs.

As i understand, still, T61's Quadro NVS 140 is based on the GeForce 8400M G or GS. Thus i wonder if it would do the trick.

There's little litterature or feedback on the subject on the web. Any help appreciated.

I can check for you if you like. I've got access to both a T61 and T61p (specs in sig)

I've also got a Sony HDR-SR7 AVCHD cam.

What exactly do you want to know ? If the CPU usage is low whilst playing back the AVCHD content ? I know trying to play back the raw .M2TS files only works smoothly in Sony's AVCHD player - Nerovision jerked around a bit.

Will find some time over the weekend and have a play - mgiht even buy a copy of Cyberlink to see if there is any difference.

Cheers

Dwayne

Should have mentioned - even the X60 can display the content fine on it's 1024x768 screen with integrated intel card. Didn't take a note of the CPU usage though

Nice one! That'd be incredible if you could! Basically the thing is:

Nvidia released the purevideo video processor with their Geforce 6 (later followed by 7) generation GPUs. Basically it's an onboard chip, a video processor that could help the CPU with some video content decoding tasks, most noticeably mpeg2 and to some extent mepg4 AVCHD. I've had a 6200TC geforce, a 6600GT, and a couple of 7300 on laptops.

This function wasn't enabled on all of Geforces 6 though.
The same way, recently, earlier this year, they released geforce 8600, 8500 and 8400, with a much ameliorated purevideo, this time called Purevideo HD VP2. According to tests, when using a specific codec that can use entirely this chips material acceleration, it can offload the CPU almost entirely.

Thus, very intensive operations like H.264 (AVCHD) decompression can be done almost entirely by the GPU. This is great news!

Here's some reading:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2977&p=1

If I can recall correctly, you would have to have the latest Cyberlink PowerDVD and the latest drivers. Thing is, i still haven't figured out if Purevideo HD VP2 support has been enabled on XP yet, as it was initially released for Vista only

I'd have to do some reading first...
Also, which drivers do you use? 3party modified or Lenovo's on your thinkpads?

Just to remind you, HD video, or at least the HD i'm interested in (forget about VC-1 and WMV) exists in different sizes (720p, 1080i, 1080p, etc) but mainly using 2 different codecs: mpeg 2 and mpeg 4 / H.264 / AVCHD.

mpeg2 HD can achieve bitrates up to 25Mbps and H.264 usually doesn't go beyons 18 Mbps

Whilst the first one isn't really a problem anymore, H.264 is very demanding and can bring most computers down to its knees, easily.

Basically, the ideal would be to get hold of a couple of trailers, in AVCHD H.264, as the raw files in .M2TS still have little support and often jerk around. I'll try to come up with more details and some links for files to download.

Anyway, much thanks for your willing to help!

No problems, happy to help out ! Just let me know the files/URL's you want me to test and I will be happy too.

I was planning on purchasing the new Cyberlink so I will do that in the next day or two - sorry, weekend was busier than I expected

I can test under XP if you want, too. We purchase 7663-11M T61's as our standard work laptop and install XP on them.

Rgds

Dwayne

Nice one!
expect to hear from me in the next couple of days with some links and more detailed information then!

Thanks again

Count me in too. I have a Panisonic SD1 AVCHD and a T61 with the Nvidia 140M.

I want to begin transcoding on my T61 from my MTS files to MP4 H.264 (~1200KB/s) but looking for a silver bullet product to do it, and do it fast.

anyone?

i dont have a hd cam, but i installed the purevideo decoder from nvidia on my quadro 140 and it takes cpu time, yes...

ran007 wrote:I want to begin transcoding on my T61 from my MTS files to MP4 H.264 (~1200KB/s) but looking for a silver bullet product to do it, and do it fast.

Well, there won't be any special solution for that I'm afraid... transcoding is done purely by the CPU, lots of ram, good fast hard drive... the GPU won't help you on that.

the only thing the purevideo chip (along with the right codec - cyberlink or intervideo) can do is to decompress the video for playback.

Btw meditate2001, the purevideo codec does not accelerate any H.264 video. It's merely meant for mpeg2.

Nvidia relies on 3rd party to implement software to use their hardware.

@dwaynel, sorry to keep you waiting mate, I've been really busy and I'm still looking for those trailers... should give you a couple of links anytime soon...

Don't think it works for transcoding, but I can playback a 1080P WMV-HD movie at ~20% CPU utilization with the Thinkpad T61p..if that helps. Can also do 720p x264 at around 15%

dwaynel,

you can find some short .TS files here I'd like you to try if possible:

http://x264.nl/h.264.samples/

They're really short samples but I suppose that sould do.

The latest version of Cyberlink PowerDVD needed is 7.3 patch 3319f. I'll provide a link later on.

You need to get laptopvideo2go modified drivers, from here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/

If you're not aware on how to use them, I can guide you.

I guess the latest ones needed are 169 for XP - but - are you running Vista?

Thanks again.