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Review: ATI Avivo Video and Display Engine - Technology Discussion

by Ryszard Sommefeldt on 20 September 2005, 00:00

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabsw

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Summaries and Thoughts

Given the five main stages of Avivo, here's the summaries already written for each.

Summaries

Capture Points

The things to take from the Capture stage are the new 12-bit ADC in Theater 550 PRO, versus the older 10-bit resolution implementation in Theater 200, and the implementation of 3D comb (analysis of future frame data to affect the signal data of the first, to improve quality) over the 2D-only filter in older hardware, as the quality improvements that define the Capture stage of Avivo.

Don't forget that there's audio capture including hardware AV-sync in 550 PRO, too. Oft neglected (and sadly by us for this article, too), the audio side isn't a strictly a part of Avivo but the two will go hand in hand.

Encode Points

The key thing to take from the Encode stage is support for H.264 AVC encode in hardware (although not the entire set of stages). That's the really big thing given it's pervasive nature in upcoming consumer electronics like XBox360, PS3, PSP, HD-DVD, HD broadcast transmissions via DVB-T, and much more. Assist for the other mentioned CODECs follows on from the H.264 AVC focus since they're all, really, just one big happy family in terms of processing. That's a generalisation of sorts, but it'll do for explaining Avivo.

So your R5-series GPU will give you a hand processing hard-to-compute-with-a-CPU video. All good, ja? And if you're not encoding video, you're decoding it.

Decode Points

The biggest thing to take from the Decode stage is that Avivo-capable products have dedicated gates for video decode. Computationally expensive formats like H.264 get significant assist by the GPU according to the Avivo literature, both by fixed function hardware, programmable video-only silicon and the 3D shader hardware if needed.

Process Points

G70 got motion-adaptive deinterlacing when combined with the $20 PureVideo software decoder. Avivo gets similar ability with vector-adaptive deinterlacing, combining per-pixel analysis with directional data. AA for video, yay!

Aaaah, Display stage next. Vindication of my first-page rant and much more. This bit is the good stuff in Avivo, trust me.

Display Points

The big bits from Display? That'll be the 10bpc from start to finish, the 10bpc simulation via dithering on digital outputs, the 10bpc spat out over analogue too, and the dual dual-link TMDS transmitters and all the joys they bring.

ATI claim the most flexible output connectivity in consumer graphics hardware and, should it all turn out this way, they'll be perfectly right.

Thoughts

Adding it all up, it appears that on this first look that there's some serious intent in Avivo to shake up how display controllers and video processing gets implemented on a graphics card. From video processing, encode help of H.264 (we can't emphasise enough how big of a video format MPEG-4 AVC is already and will be in the future), decode assist for the same format (and others of course) and then onto the brand new display controller that seemingly does the lot, from 10bpc processing and output to a pair of dual-link digital transmitters for DVI/HDMI.

I've mentioned in public recently that R520 isn't all about the performance. This is one of the main reasons why. The 10:10:10 output precision hints at the same buffer format being available to 3D applications for higher dynamic range rendering (2 spare bits for encoding info for other stuff like tonemappers too, remember) in R5-series GPUs. The lack of any real resolution or refresh limitation with R5-series Crossfire is not to be overlooked, either.

Given the rest of R5's specs, especially in the realms of fragment processing and much-improved pixel ROPs, Avivo on top makes for some serious salivating to be done between now and launch. Avivo, while a totally pants name, certainly isn't pants on paper.

We await reference and retail hardware with baited breath. HEXUS will have the full scoop for you in due course, of course.


HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Very interesting technology…
Right. Sounds good! My beef with capture/AV cards are these points:

1. Is there HD Component Capture on it? I know, this is confined to 10,000 dollar cards at the moment, but this is really a ‘next-gen’ feature, for me- being able to capture recordings of my races on PGR3 on an Xbox360/PS3, etc. Being able to get HD feeds and manipulate them. We now have the codecs, processor power and bandwitch for disssemination to deal with HD at other stages, but theres no capture solution for consumers. I assume they are also getting asked/made not to include this by content providers who don't want high quality rips of thier HD content being easily made.

2. As you have already identified, no actual forcing of ODMs to include specific connectors. This Avivia technology undoubtedly provides the technological base and therefore a big incentive to ODMs to go dual DVI, etc, but I think VGA ports will be here to stay in the mid range for a while yet- I don't recall seeig many 6600 series dual DVI cards, for example, certainly not a popular model.

3. Not truely related to this issue, coming under the All-In-Wonder team's remit, I presume; will they A: start releasing the AIW version cards closer to release of the vanilla cards and B: start getting DVB tuners in more of the cards! This is far more important for most people than analog capture, in my experience. Freeview on the PC is far more attractive than 10bit capture of VHS tapes from 1993 (which is what the vast majority of people do with analog capture).

Also, other questions- do these Dual DVI ports explicitly support HDCP and therefore Vista- I didn't explicitly see that mentioned; theres been quite a furore over people not being able to see Vista HD streams on 2405s, for example. Is this capability really new- are current ATI cards capable of outputting HDCP over DVI?

Also, while I've got your attention (if I do!), what's the absolute maximum resolution supported by Dual TDMS DVI (with a bit of blanking timing redution, like single link)? Is it 2880x1800, as in twice 1920x1200? Not beee able to find this tidbit anywhere!
And, when will be able to buy 10bit panels at affordable prices? Any clues?

Great article, don't let my overly specific questions detract!
mull
1. Is there HD Component Capture on it? I know, this is confined to 10,000 dollar cards at the moment, but this is really a ‘next-gen’ feature, for me- being able to capture recordings of my races on PGR3 on an Xbox360/PS3, etc. Being able to get HD feeds and manipulate them. We now have the codecs, processor power and bandwitch for disssemination to deal with HD at other stages, but theres no capture solution for consumers. I assume they are also getting asked/made not to include this by content providers who don't want high quality rips of thier HD content being easily made.
I don't think ATI have any plans for HD capture via component inputs, but I'll certainly ask.

mull
2. As you have already identified, no actual forcing of ODMs to include specific connectors. This Avivia technology undoubtedly provides the technological base and therefore a big incentive to ODMs to go dual DVI, etc, but I think VGA ports will be here to stay in the mid range for a while yet- I don't recall seeig many 6600 series dual DVI cards, for example, certainly not a popular model.
Dual-DVI passive 6600 for sub Ā£80. No stock, but doesn't that indicate popularity? ;) They're out there if you peek.

mull
3. Not truely related to this issue, coming under the All-In-Wonder team's remit, I presume; will they A: start releasing the AIW version cards closer to release of the vanilla cards and B: start getting DVB tuners in more of the cards! This is far more important for most people than analog capture, in my experience. Freeview on the PC is far more attractive than 10bit capture of VHS tapes from 1993 (which is what the vast majority of people do with analog capture).
That's their goal. Digital tuning will be standard from now on and the AIW version of X1800 shouldn't be far away (certainly before Christmas I'd say) from the launch of the non-AIW version.

mull
Also, other questions- do these Dual DVI ports explicitly support HDCP and therefore Vista- I didn't explicitly see that mentioned; theres been quite a furore over people not being able to see Vista HD streams on 2405s, for example. Is this capability really new- are current ATI cards capable of outputting HDCP over DVI?
Avivo supports DRM on the digital outputs, yeah. I'll ask about HDCP support for HD playback on current hardware.

mull
Also, while I've got your attention (if I do!), what's the absolute maximum resolution supported by Dual TDMS DVI (with a bit of blanking timing redution, like single link)? Is it 2880x1800, as in twice 1920x1200? Not beee able to find this tidbit anywhere!
Yeah, you can double the resolution with another link. Current max seems to be 2560x1600 though (the size of the mainstream 30" LCDs), but I'll ask on that one too.

mull
And, when will be able to buy 10bit panels at affordable prices? Any clues? Great article, don't let my overly specific questions detract!
Not really sure dude, but I'll try and do some digging. Cheers for the read + questions, good to get some feedback.
Rys,

thanks for the interesting article. :thumbsup: I think it was well balanced - easy to grasp but still full of new info (at least for me… :P )

One question:

Quote from the article: “HDCP is required for HD video (and audio over HDMI) display on HD-able displays, lest the Avivo engine downscale to 480p (or something else, it's unconfirmed as yet but likely 480p).”

Do you have any idea will the future ATI (AIW?)-products (or Nvidia's, for that matter) allow outputting audio over the HDMI, too?

I would think this would be a logical thing to do, as the version 1.1 of HDMI supports full-scale (hi-res, multichannel) audio over the HDCP-encryted interface.

Many PC-displays, shamefully, still lack even basic HDCP-support, but many consumer receivers and TVs already support HDMI, some of them even v.1.1. (1.0 supported only 2-ch PCM or DD/DTS-level bitstream audio over the HDMI). And as Creative and other sound card manufacturers do not seem to have any plans to use HDMI in the near future, we won't have use for the audio side of HDMI unless motherboard- or graphics-card -makers implement the audio side, too. If I've understood correctly, products based on Intel's HDA -standard would have the necessary support for all the channels etc., but I'm not certain about their DRM / HDCP -implementations. Neither have I heard any of them mentioning HDMI. :confused:

So I think (and hope) it would be logical for the graphics card makers to implement the audio side, too, when they introduce their first HDMI-products. I, for one, would not mind paying Creative nothing when I build my next HTPC, if I had the basic digital audio connections and HDMI on the video card or mobo. Would be nice to build a HTPC without the need for separate sound card, just output everything digitally to the display and sound system via a HDMI-equipped pre/pro/receiver… :D

Gaming is a totally different game, of course, at the moment at least.

I know that the market penetration of HDMI is not yet broad and there are many questions regarding for example which component does what in a HDMI-chain. But I think HDMI is here to stay, and I'm frustrated that I don't yet know which component will do the audio side of things. :undecided

Keep up the good work! :)

Wbr, Tatu