ATI's Avivo mark 2 - a preview

The Avivo Video Converter

As tech-savvy guys and gals like you will no doubt be aware, video comes in all kinds of different formats - and the devices you use to play back video content also vary hugely.

On the PC, MPEG-2 is the major standard. It's used in DVD and it's used in Windows Media Center recording and playback. However, as we move towards the next generation and a new raft of video devices, things are getting increasingly more complicated.

The Apple iPod video uses H.264 for playback, as does the Sony PSP. The first generation of Windows Media Center compatible devices use proprietary Windows Media files, whereas later versions - such as the new Creative Zen - use MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Additionally, there are all sorts of consumer devices like DVD players and DVD writers that use DivX as a standard.


Typically, video content you want to get on to a device will not be in the format that you need it for your portable device. If you rip a DVD, it will be MPEG-2 - you need to get that into H.264 for your PSP, for example. Different devices also have different resolutions and file headers, and this can make getting the exact formatting for a device a bit of a nightmare. Even if you can get all this formatting correct, transcoding video from one format to another can be an incredibly slow and CPU-intensive process.

ATI have released a new tool along with Catalyst 5.13 called the Avivo Video Converter. This is designed to speed up and automate the process of converting video. It's a simple software tool that transfers any video you stick into it into common formats such as PSP, iPod etc with the correct video codecs, screen resolution and file headers.

In benchmarks we saw, we saw H.264 encoding using the ATI tool completed 5 times faster than using Nero. It is seriously faster. Presently, this is achieved just using software - proprietary software technology inherited from the All-In-Wonder cards. Moving forward over the next couple of months, video transcoding is going to get faster, as hardware acceleration is utilised. Currently, there are some questions as to the quality of the transcoded video - we haven't had a chance to see if the extra speed comes at a quality cost, and we'll be finding that out as soon as possible.

The tool is going to be available from Thursday, so we'd love you guys to grab it, have a play with it, and let us know your experiences. Frankly, it could make a X1000 card a must-have if you're a heavy portable video user.