Intel® Clear Video HD Technology - is it any good for movies?

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eyal1983

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Feb 11, 2013
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I am buying a second laptop/notebook, which will be used for watching movies mainly through the HDMI port to an external IPS FHD monitor.

Now, my question is:
is this feature gives anything to the video quality itself?
or, is it just there so i can tweak the video color's properties (something i never do) ?

thanks!
 
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Hazle

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Oct 28, 2011
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technically, it does allow you to improve video quality, somewhat. it's a feature that allows you to process and decode videos via hardware acceleration, where most of the load is handled by the GPU rather than the CPU otherwise. it's intel's solution to microsoft's DXVA API, which before Intel HD 2000, was only supported by discrete GPU's from AMD/ATI & Nvidia;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Clear_Video

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DXVA

from there, you can improve video quality, via sharpening/anti-aliasing, de-interlacing, etc. without affecting CPU load by a whole lot and experiencing video stuttering, audio & video out of sync, and other symptoms common with watching a video with the CPU at full load.

there are some caveats; you'll need to choose the right video player, and maybe the right video codec to utilize Intel Clear Video/DXVA as well as the right video format & video encode.

i'm personally using Media Player Classic Home Cinema + LAV codecs to run my H264 8-bit encoded 720P .mkv BR/DVD rips. never seen CPU usage beyond 20% with my AMD E-350 + HD6310 notebook, which says a lot considering how low end it is. at it's worse with a 1080p video, CPU usage spiked at 40-50%. though to be fair, i kinda ripped it at a much lower, acceptable quality to save up on HDD space.

an example on what DXVA can do;

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_hd_5450_review,8.html
 
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eyal1983

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Feb 11, 2013
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but if i do not change any setting on the computer itself, but only the monitor's (also, i do not do),
will it change anything, or just lower the CPU usage (given i am using MPC+LAV) ?
 
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Hazle

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without using DXVA? you'll see a higher CPU load. depending on the video format & the CPU, at worst this'll largely vary from high cpu load+playable video, to high cpu load but stuttered video playback, audio out of sync, artifacts, MPC-HC crashing, etc.

DXVA settings are done through MPC-HC, or any of the other DXVA supported players of your choice, not the PC itself. changing monitor settings does not greatly affect CPU load when watching videos, if there are any at all.
 
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eyal1983

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Feb 11, 2013
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i'm seeing CPU usage of 15% when using "BS.Player free", with "my freecodec" and the Built-In codecs of the BS.Player.
and I am watching 720p. I have an i5-3210m CPU on this laptop.
just to make sure i understand: i am NOT utilizing the "Clear HD..." at the moment, right?
 
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