ATI Technologies HD 3450 - Manual (Page 3)

ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 - Video Review Guide 3
©2007 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AMD, The AMD arrow, Athlon, ATI, the ATI logo, Avivo,
Catalyst, The Ultimate Visual Experience and Radeon are trademarks of Advanced Micro
Devices, Inc. Features, pricing, availability and specifications may vary by product model and
are subject to change without notice. Products may not be exactly as shown. Not all features
may be implemented by all manufacturers.
Introduction
High Definition (HD) content is gaining in popularity, driven by the increasing
availability and affordability of HD-capable televisions, new releases of movies on HD
media (Blu-ray
TM & HD DVD) and a desire by consumers for a more immersive
entertainment experience.
It may be possible for consumers to upgrade their current PCs by adding new HD
DVD and/or Blu-ray
TM optical drives; however, the remaining PC components might
lack the required processing capabilities for fully featured and smooth HD content
playback. HD content presents many challenges, including:
• Large quantities of data processing
o
up to six times the rendering required of standard-definition content
o
it is also memory bandwidth intensive
• Computational complexity of algorithms for decode (i.e. CABAC) and
processing (i.e. advanced de-interlacing)
• High power consumption levels as PC resources run intensively to decode HD
content, which can reduce battery life on notebooks and increase noise levels
caused by the fans of the system running to dissipate heat
o
This is not ideal in a home theater scenario
• HDCP and content protection mechanisms included on most HD media by
content providers (movies studios, cable providers…). If these requirements
are not supported properly, consumers may encounter issues to playback HD
protected content on their PCs.
In the past, the ATI Radeon™ X1000 series of graphics processors from AMD sought
to overcome these challenges by harnessing the GPU processing power hardware to
assist in the video decoding process. This innovation moved the major part of the
video decoding off the CPU, while taking advantage of the GPU graphics power for
post processing routines designed to enhance the image quality.
AMD continued its efforts to deliver an exceptional home entertainment experience
for consumers with the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 series. These products leveraged
ATI’s Avivo™ HD technology to provide a comprehensive solution to the challenges of
HD playback.
1 These features have been further enhanced with the ATI Radeon™ HD
3000 series.
1 Not all ATI Avivo HD features may be available on all models.