ArcSoft Claims HD From SD With Nvidia CUDA
A new software suite from ArcSoft promises to turn standard definition into high definition.
We hear all the time about the upscaling quality of high-definition players and how they handle the conversion of a 480p image to 1080p. It’s one measured areas that a home theater aficionado (at least those who still have sizable DVD collections) pays attention to. With that in mind, we raise eyebrows at ArcSoft’s claim that its new software can scale DVDs to near-HD levels.
ArcSoft promises that its SimHD plug-in for ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre multimedia player will work upscaling magic by utilizing the Nvidia CUDA parallel computing architecture to “solve complex calculations in a fraction of the time required on a CPU.”
TotalMedia Theatre takes advantage of the GPUs from the GeForce 8 Series onwards for SimHD‘s “intensive post processing algorithms.”
"Our newly released upscaling technology, ArcSoft SimHD, is available now in retail to allow viewers to obtain an HD-like viewing experience on the PC from the existing standard DVDs,” said George Tang, ArcSoft VP and GM.
“What a great way to upgrade your existing library of DVDs! All you need is TotalMedia Theatre and an Nvidia GeForce GPU, and you can instantly turn your movies into near-HD quality,” said Michael Steele, GM of visual consumer solutions at Nvidia.
Although filters and post-processing do help an image, we’re extremely skeptical about any claims of turning a standard definition picture into one that’s even near the fidelity of high-definition.
A 1080p Blu-ray Disc is six times the resolution from a DVD, so how SimHD is able to make up for that difference -- at least what is perceptible to the eye -- is beyond us. The example image included by Nvidia and ArcSoft shows image tweaks, but not a shift in resolution (which is to be expected).
TotalMedia Theatre with SimHD technology is currently available as a TotalMedia Theatre plug-in for end users, and we’ll have to check it out for ourselves.
http://www.neuviewed.com/neuview6/generate.php?pagename=home/index#REWARD
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First there's linear and cubic interpolation;or perhaps quarter pixel data that can be extruded to a cluster of 4 pixels.
A more complex,and CPU intensive procedure might include extracting 720x480 to 1440x960. A cluster of 4 pixels will turn into 16 pixels.
Depending on the shape of the object, the GPU calculates how an object which crossed the 4 pixels will display on 16 pixels.
If it's crossing in a straight line, (or in a curved line) it will look much like enabling AA 2x in games. The extraction of 4 to 16 pixels might be more than simple upscaling happening all over the screen.
A third way this technology could work, is if the images processed are compressed with a lossy encoder like divx or xvid.
Both codecs can successfully identify cut foreground objects, sometimes store them as high quality Jpegs, and slide them across the screen,to eg show an animation of an object sliding across the screen.
The data they gather of these objects sometimes surpasses the quality or resolution of the display they are displayed at (eg as they move across the screen they are also scaled to smaller objects).
Instead of recalculating an object every frame,DivX and XviD can 'scale' that object larger or smaller,and keep the highest detailed version in the memory using that to display even at lower resolutions.
If the software is capable of calling these objects, it could load the data it has about this object into the memory, and perhaps display it in a slightly higher resolution as the original display resolution
(if you get what I mean).
Latter 2 examples are very uncommon and probably extremely high CPU/GPU intensive tasks. So I think this methode is nothing more than extracting quarter pixel data to 2x2 pixelarray, and using the simple AA 2x approach.
The original might look different from the upscaled version, especially if the image contains lots of data & detail!
If you can't tell the difference between 480 lines (DVD, standard TV) and 720/1080 lines (HDTV, BluRay) you probably need your eyes checked. No reasonable amount of distance from my TV causes me to view them with equal clarity.
Yep, it's the new UD... Uber-definition!
no, the cheap SD TV's that are in market, have high pixel pitch ration, means their pixels are in highest distance from each other, so a big high quality, low pixel pitch ratio, and therefore high price and expensive SD TV, can show good pictures even in low distance when you sit near them.
and about this technology that ArcSoft Claims it will produce, I feel it's happening, cuz it needs CUDA, means heavy processing, so, eagerly waiting for it!