I noticed that most recent video adapters from ATI (the HD nnnn series) include a dedicated processor for H.264 and VC-1 decoding. The chip is called Unified Video Decoder. Marketing texts claim that it completely offloads decoding from the CPU and is capable of crunching extremely high bitrates.
Are there any tests verifying this? Is this processor freely accesible, or only certified brandname software can use it?
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