Ati includes Avivo video converter with new Catalyst 6.3 drivers
Ati has released their Catalyst 6.3 drivers that include many bug fixes and a video encoder that can cut video conversion times by up to 80%. Weighing in at almost 60 megaBytes the new drivers will solves rendering problems on popular games like Farcry, Call of Duty 2 and World of Warcraft. In fact, owners of Ati Radeon X1800 and X1900 videos cards should expect to see a 5% to 10% increase in frame-rates from the new drivers.
Everyone expects new drivers to fix bugs, but the addition of the Avivo video converter should make multimedia fans happy. The utility converts videos to different formats with the assistance of the GPU. People who have recently purchased a portable media device like a video-enabled ipod or Pocket PC know that it is a pain to downsize and convert full-sized videos.
Videos must often be chopped down from high desktop resolutions to resolutions supported by the tiny handheld screens. Afterwards the videos are usually converted into a format that only the player can understand. This takes time, sometimes a lot of time, but according to Ati the Avivo converter can speed encoding by up to 80% and it even supports h.264.
Catalyst 6.3 is available now for free download and the whole package is weighs in at almost 60 megaBytes.
Humphrey Cheung was a senior editor at Tom's Hardware, covering a range of topics on computing and consumer electronics. You can find more of his work in many major publications, including CNN and FOX, to name a few.