Part 4: Avivo HD vs. PureVideo HD

HQV’s High-Definition Video Quality Benchmark, Cont'd

Film Resolution Loss Test: Out Of 25 Points

This test simply shows a pattern of lines and color bars. If the DVD player can show the smallest lines without flickering, it is successfully de-interlacing the image.

Again, all of the integrated solutions fail to produce results and the lone discrete 8400 GS provides a glimmer of hope by de-interlacing the image. Unfortunately, the video playback demonstrates some stuttering.

Film Resolution Loss Test—STADIUM: Out Of 10 Points

This test simply shows video of a stadium captured on film. If there are no visual artifacts, then there is no resolution loss.

And here we see that every contestant fails once again. Only the GeForce 8400 GS appeared to offer limited Resolution Loss, but it wasn’t perfect and still showed some moiré patterns. HQV’s scoring guidelines seem to suggest allocating the 10 points is an all-or-nothing affair, so we didn’t give it the 10 points although it appeared to offer an improvement.

Now that we’ve examined the specific tests, let’s have a look at the totals:

It’s pretty easy math to add up the integrated graphics solution’s scores, and it’s definitely sobering to see the results. Clearly, the integrated solutions provide only the most basic Blu-ray playback. Having said that, cheap standalone Blu-ray players will likely provide a similar experience without the benefits that a personal computer will provide.

Although we left them out of the charts for clarity’s sake, we once again need to mention the Radeon 2600/3650/4650 series and GeForce 8600/9500 series. For under $100, these cards can provide massive image quality improvements when playing back HD video. Both the Radeon 2600 XT and GeForce 8600 GTS achieved excellent scores of 105 and 95, respectively, in our last Avivo HD vs. PureVideo HD review. We haven’t yet tested the Radeon 4000 series for Blu-ray playback, but the inclusion of eight-channel audio support is a nice addition.