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  • #81
    Originally posted by HokTar View Post
    You are shooting a bird with a canon, don't you think?
    Why go for the kill when you can go for overkill?

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    • #82
      Overkill is a time-honored tradition, particularly when hunting birds :



      Punt guns were eventually outlawed in most areas, since there was a real risk of "running out of birds" if their use was continued. I think the record was ~130 birds taken with a single shot.
      Test signature

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      • #83

        On this page, video decode using 3d engine is todo for r600.

        And on this page, g3dvl (video decode?) for r600 is WIP.

        Hu?

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        • #84
          Originally posted by bridgman View Post
          Yes and no - most of the slow CPU / small GPU combinations seem to be in laptops, where neither component is easily upgradeable.
          I wouldn't want to be doing any kind of heavy processing on a laptop. For those devices it is dedicated decoder or nothing. Reason being that most laptops are built to push the thermal limits of their components. Add heavy processing onto it and you're going to be hitting the overheat kill switch. Even with shader-assisted decoding, you're still going to be running the CPU too hard too consistently to keep properly cool. I would say that about 50% of laptops I've come across can hit the overheat kill switch if you run the CPU at or near 100% for half an hour.

          And FYI: that broadcom device I mentioned is actually a LAPTOP card, so for that application, $50 and you have a LINUX SUPPORTED HD video decoder. It REALLY REALLY is the stationary HTPC-type devices that are going to benefit most from assisted video decoding. And yes, the broadcom device will work in a desktop system, but add in $100 for the socket adapter from mini-PCI-e to PCI-e X1.


          And the decoder -- crystalHD BCM7001x -- they go for $50+.

          ** so for a desktop, you're looking at $150 (significantly more than the price of a sufficient video card). For a laptop, $50, which is about the lower limit for a video card that *might* be enough (or might not be).

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          • #85
            Originally posted by curaga View Post
            How many 2/4-socket server boards still have Ati Rages? Or other low-end gpu, for the matter.
            How many 2/4-socket server boards are used for watching videos?

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            • #86
              Originally posted by droidhacker View Post
              How many 2/4-socket server boards are used for watching videos?
              Doesn't Q have some?

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              • #87
                Originally posted by droidhacker View Post
                ** so for a desktop, you're looking at $150 (significantly more than the price of a sufficient video card). For a laptop, $50, which is about the lower limit for a video card that *might* be enough (or might not be).
                The Broadcom card is overpriced by retailers. It normally costs much less than 10 USD. Some people even indicated that it might be under 5 USD. I think Broadcom has a variant that directly applies to PCI-E 1x. Some time ago, I came accrosss a Quartics card that would do the same. However, I nowadays believe it's vaporware. For sure, for 50 USD, you'd better get an NVIDIA card. There might even be some ION-NG that fits PCI-E 1x.

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                • #88
                  An add-in PCI-E card might be a usable solution for a laptop, but why should I have to pay more for an additional peripheral when I already bought a laptop with an HD-capable GPU inside?

                  Once upon a time when you bought a PC (think Apple II or IBM PC) it came with a technical reference manual that not only described how everything worked, but even gave the assembly source code for the operating firmware. (OK, the IBM PC Tech Ref Manual didn't come with source code, but it still gave you full docs on how to program all of the hardware.)

                  We've come a long way since then, but when did it become acceptable to pay hundreds to thousands of dollars for hardware and not receive full specs for how to use it? Digital rights be damned, consumer rights have been totally trampled.

                  AMD, Intel and Nvidia need to step up and tell Hollywood to f#ck off and quit trying to dictate what kind of hardware they can or cannot build. With all the reliance on digital effects these days, Hollywood needs to watch its step. The computer industry can survive without the movie industry, but not the other way round.

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                  • #89
                    The fact is, if the hardware was documented in a way that allowed circumvention of the DRM, OS vendors like Microsoft would likely revoke the "protected media" certification for that hardware (because doing so is a condition of the deals signed with the movie studios to be allowed to play content on that OS/hardware in the first place).

                    This would lead to those who want to play protected content (and more to the point, those OEMs building computers where the target market may want to play protected content) needing to go with a competitor who hasn't been blacklisted by the OS vendors.

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                    • #90
                      So let them blacklist everyone. So what? Consumers want their media the way they want it. Do you think, just because the media industry decides not to provide media on PCs the way consumers want it, that consumers will suddenly start flocking back to movie theaters and start buying DVDs again? Not bloody likely.

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