HD-DVD Playback - On the Xbox 360 & on NVIDIA GPUs
by Derek Wilson & Manveer Wasson on December 15, 2006 9:21 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
From what we are seeing, there are many more stressful H.264 movies currently available on Blu-ray than HD-DVD. The VC-1 titles are definitely less of a problem for modern hardware, but it wouldn't be a good idea to build a system for playing video without building for the worst case scenario.
While H.264 under The Interpreter did provide a good amount of CPU utilization, there just weren't any huge bitrate scenes to test worst case scenarios. As more action packed and intricate movies are released on HD-DVD with H.264, we would be willing to bet that HD-DVD movies could be as stressful as X-Men III.
Right now the format with the highest potential for pushing hardware beyond its limits is Blu-ray. With 50GB disks possible today, we could see 2+ hour movies with sustained bitrates of 45 Mbps under H.264 which would really push even an X6800 system with an 8800 GTX running the display. Of course, bitrates that high aren't really necessary most of the time, so it won't likely be an issue. But HD-DVD is currently limited to 30GB disks which decreases the potential for high bitrate video (which translates to large file size).
Generally, graphics hardware performed as expected based on our previous testing. It would have been nice to test ATI hardware as well, and we will test it as soon as Cyberlink or Intervideo can get us a player that is up to the task.
As far as the Xbox 360 drive goes, it makes an excellent addition for those interested in HD-DVD playback on a PC. The price is right, it's easy to use and set up, and it won't take up room inside a crowded case. It may be a good idea for most people to wait until the dust settles before throwing their lot in with either HD-DVD or Blu-ray, as the market doesn't seem robust enough to handle two competing formats. On the other hand, those who don't mind potentially purchasing dead-end hardware take a much smaller risk by spending $200 on the XBox 360 HD-DVD drive. Getting a Blu-ray player right now is a much more expensive proposition. typically running over $500 (though with the ability to record as well as play back content).
Those who don't want to take a chance on their PC being able to play HD-DVDs can at least rely on their Xbox 360 for that. The drive combined with the remote provided a very simple and easy to use experience. The Xbox 360 handled playing back HD-DVD movies as well as any consumer electronics device could be expected. Of course at a price of around $200 you can't find standalone HD-DVD players for less money, so if you have a 360 or PC that you'd like to use for HD-DVD playback you can get both for less than a set-top player.
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losthours - Saturday, December 16, 2006 - link
all i hear is how the ps3 is overpriced. but by the time you add the relative hardware to the xbox 360 you get the same price. so it looks like sony didn't dump you with a dvd drive you really didn't need and make you pay later. just a side note i'm note gonna buy either xbox or ps3 i'm gonna go with the wii if i buy one.nah - Saturday, December 16, 2006 - link
How about recording a video to HD-DVD/Blu-Ray and seeing CPU utilization ?artifex - Friday, December 15, 2006 - link
Thanks for the article!I haven't even read it, yet, but this is what I've been waiting for, since your earlier one. So thanks for getting it out so quickly!
Badkarma - Friday, December 15, 2006 - link
All I see these days are articles about video playback of HD-DVD/Bluray. How about the HD Audio formats like DD+, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD? All these HDCP video cards with HDMI don't have connectivity to pass the PCM output of the HD audio soundtracks like the CE devices do. When is this coming?DerekWilson - Sunday, December 17, 2006 - link
Actually, IIRC, all the HDMI cards we tested do have an audio input for pass through.Badkarma - Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - link
Derek. The audio passthrough seen on all current HDMI cards are SPDIF which can only carry regular Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS. HD Audio formats go hand in hand with the two new HD formats, but NO ONE has addressed how the HD audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD will be handled on the computer. I've scoured the internet for more information, but there doesn't really seem to be anything to be found. Can you please look into this? You can output TrueHD/DTS-HD via analog outputs on your soundcard if you have them, however, for those of us that would like to apply room equilization to the audio are SOL. There is nothing at the moment available that will allow TrueHD/DTS-HD to be passed as PCM audio via HDMI like the Toshiba HD-A1/2 CE devices.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - link
Does anything use TrueHD DTS-HD audio right now? I don't know, but if the audio on BRD and HD-DVD is only DD5.1 or DTS, then passing them as something HD won't improve quality. While I can see video truly benefiting from higher bitrates, I don't think audio really needs more than about a DVD's worth of storage tops before any improvements can't be heard. But anyway, I don't have an answer to your question and am merely curious as to what the benefits are. (I don't really think BRD/HDDVD are better than other alternatives, but it's what we're getting from MPAA/RIAA so consumers are stuck.)Badkarma - Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - link
Almost every single HD-DVD has at minimum Dolby Digital + which has a lot more bandwidth than DD5.1. There are quite a few HD-DVD's with TrueHD soundtracks. Unfortunately, a lot of consumers think like you, audio doesn't matter, 5.1 is enough. HD audio goes hand in hand with HD video. It's a complete package.artifex - Friday, December 15, 2006 - link
In the case of the XBOX360 HD-DVD player, most of these HD audio formats aren't available, anyway. They should probably mention this in the article.Renoir - Friday, December 15, 2006 - link
Very good question! I would also like to see more discussion/analysis on this situation