ATI Hardware Acceleration of H.264

[Wonder Boy]

You need a physical copy of the same registered QuickTime 6 Pro Player (file) you were using prior to the installation of QT7 -- either from a backup or a copy that exists on another disk. You can't just reinstall QuickTime 6 over your current QuickTime 7.

i think i know what you mean. ill give it a shot.

 

[modernpixel]

Isn't ATI notorious for releasing Mac versions of their graphics cards months after the PC version? Some never even make the move.

I seriously doubt ATI is building this card with Apple in mind -- maybe someday they'll port it, but it's more likely going to be for PCs to play HD and Blu-Ray DVD ROMs and for consumer players like DVRs. Most likely they'll make a slightly outdated or less cool one for the Mac - like they always seem to do.

 

[DrNeroCF]

Am I missing something, here? My Powerbook plays video clips as big as it's screen at full fps. Once they get bigger than that, it'll sputter, but what's the point of squeezing in more pixels than are on the screen...

Now a hardware encoder...

 

[Darwin]

Am I missing something, here? My Powerbook plays video clips as big as it's screen at full fps. Once they get bigger than that, it'll sputter, but what's the point of squeezing in more pixels than are on the screen...

Now a hardware encoder...

Well the more the number of pixels the better the quality if thats what your asking

Could you rephrase the question?

 

[GregA]

Am I missing something, here? My Powerbook plays video clips as big as it's screen at full fps. Once they get bigger than that, it'll sputter, but what's the point of squeezing in more pixels than are on the screen...

True, once you've reached your maximum resolution, higher resolution isn't necessary. Note that there is a difference between "full screen" and "using all the pixels" - if you play a Quicktime clip at "normal" size and it takes up the whole screen then this clip does use all the pixels (if it zooms up the picture then it does not).

So the other advantages to hardware acceleration... firstly you can have the same quality file compressed with MPEG2 or h264 - and the h264 is a much smaller file and requires better hardware to decode it. When payTV companies start doing h264 it'll be so they can squeeze more channels to the box (it won't be because the chips are simpler or cheaper!). Or the files may be similar size and the colours and motion should be better with h264.

The last advantage to hardware acceleration is that your computer doesn't have to use its own power to decode. Of course, if you never have anything running in the background while you watch a movie (or video conference) then it doesn't make much difference.