In part 1 of our Avivo vs. Purevideo comparison, we concentrated on DVD playback. It turned out that both the Avivo and Purevideo hardware-accelerated solutions offer very good image quality and performance enhancements in that realm. Although either solution has its strengths and quirks, the competition ended in what essentially amounts to a tie in the DVD arena.

Today, with part 2 of the comparison, we're looking toward the future of home video entertainment. We'll concentrate on high-definition video formats like HD DVD and Blu-ray, and dig into what it takes to get them to work on the PC and investigate how the user experience is impacted by the new HD digital rights management components.

With this eye to the future, we'll use the newest video card architectures available, as well. We'll see what Nvidia's newest DirectX 10 cards, the Geforce 8800, 8600, and 8500 can do for HD video. We'll also see what ATI's newest flagship card brings to the table, the HD 2900 XT. But first, a little background on HD video formats on the PC...

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