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FiringSquad: How many MPEG-2 HD streams can a GeForce 7800GTX decode simultaneously?

Two.

[Alan's comments: In our ATI interview, we learned that the X1800 can "easily decode a single HD-MPEG2" stream. ATI used the phrase that they had "not really mapped out beyond a single stream" when it comes to the X1800]

FiringSquad: How much of PureVideo is done with the dedicated VPU components of the chip versus the 3D pipeline?

Scott Vouri: I’m really glad you asked this because it is one of the coolest things about our programmable video processor. Our PureVideo technology actually does processor load-balancing across all the video cores and the 3D rendering engine. That way we can process multiple tasks at once or process different stages of the video pipeline at the same time.

[Alan's comments: That wasn't as much detail as I was interested in hearing, but in a follow-up question, NVIDIA suggested the example of performing hardware accelerated decode and some post-processing effects on the internal VPUs and then doing additional color-enhancements or post-processing on the 3D engine.]



FiringSquad: Are there any plans to make use of both PureVideo VP's in SLI configured systems for more exotic processing?

Scott Vouri: I can’t comment on unannounced products.

[Alan's comments: So far in this interview, NVIDIA's chosen not to discuss unannounced TV tuners, but they have hinted about SDI support in upcoming Quadro products. I'm not sure how to interpret this answer as SLI and PureVideo are both fully disclosed technologies. If you believe in test taking strategy, your gut response is usually right and my gut says this is something NVIDIA is working on. That said, one of the challenges of deinterlacing is not simply the processing power but also coming up with appropriate algorithms as well. There's no "brute force" solution. It's possible to have so elegant of a solution that you don't need the extra processing. I'll put motion-adaptive noise reduction during playback on my wish list...]