Microsoft reveals native Win 7 video transcoding

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 2nd June 2009
Comments (15) Stumble
Microsoft reveals native Win 7 video transcoding

Microsoft's Murray Vince revealed one of Windows 7's hidden features: native GPU accelerated video transcoding. Huang gave him a big hug after hailing Windows 7 as the most important OS ever.

COMPUTEX 2009: Microsoft’s Murray Vince yesterday revealed that Windows 7 features native support for GPU accelerated video transcoding.

Vince announced this interesting development during Nvidia’s pre-Computex shindig, where he joined Drew Henry on stage.

The implementation was seamless as Henry simply dragged and dropped the high definition video file onto a Sony Walkman portable media player in Windows Explorer, where it automatically started transferring the file onto the Walkman.

The demo included an Ion-based machine and another, similarly specced machine without Nvidia integrated graphics – the Nvidia-based machine finished the transcoding task around five times faster than the Atom-based PC with Intel integrated graphics, taking just over 1 minute 30 to complete.

Vince said that you can treat media as easily portable content with Windows 7 – “it’s conveniently capable across multiple devices,” he added.

With native support for features like this, it’s easy to understand why Huang is so excited about Windows 7. “DirectX Compute is the most important API in Windows 7,” proclaimed Henry as Vince returned to his seat in the audience.

Discuss in the forums.

Microsoft reveals native Win 7 video transcoding
Microsoft reveals native Win 7 video transcoding Microsoft reveals native Win 7 video transcoding
Quote docodine 2nd June 2009, 05:50
YEAH! Media transcoding is the most annoying thing that I ever have to do on a weekly basis, if it's properly simplified, then KUDOS, HUGS, CHEESECAKE.
Quote sui_winbolo 2nd June 2009, 06:04
What Nvidia GPUs will support this? Any word on that?
Quote ZERO <ibis> 2nd June 2009, 07:20
Every gpu ever made. The api just offloads the work from the cpu to the gpu. Because this is built into the os it will work on any gpu but the faster the gpu the better the results. The ion gpu is a lot faster than the integrated intel one hence the performance difference.
Quote tripwired 2nd June 2009, 08:34
Is this functionality present in the RC?
Quote V3ctor 2nd June 2009, 08:48
If Microsoft gives it to nVidia, then ATi must be near :D Hope so...
Quote Sebbo 2nd June 2009, 09:20
article seems to suggest its running via DX11's Compute Shader, so ATI and Intel's Larabee will also support this.
7 is certainly shaping up to be "the people's OS"
Quote Boogle 2nd June 2009, 09:20
Wouldn't be surprised if ATI already has it. It's using the DirectX Compute API, rather than NV's proprietary CUDA. As long as ATI sees fit to support Compute, then it should work too. Of course NV's latest GPUs (GT200 GPU) are very much designed with CUDA/Compute in mind, so should be faster than any ATI equivalents.
Quote HourBeforeDawn 2nd June 2009, 10:27
Poor nVidia so far they have wasted so much money on what is basically failing tech eg PhysX, those crappy 3d tech, and Cuda but everyone pretty much saw this coming except for nVidia but their Egos are so high in the sky I can see why they completely missed the warning signs but hey awesome for the rest of the competition and the users for that matter. :)
Quote Psy-UK 2nd June 2009, 10:36
Good stuff. Video transcoding is so ridiculously slow even on a quad-core.
Quote Bauul 2nd June 2009, 10:54
Wow, that looks surprisingly well realised. It's not often a new software solution comes along like that, unnanounced, and just appears to work out of the bag. Win7 keeps looking better and better.
Quote Paradigm Shifter 2nd June 2009, 12:46
Awesome.

Waiting for demo on ATi cards. Wonder whether it's architecture neutral, or whether it favours one or the other?
Quote perplekks45 2nd June 2009, 20:49
Please tell me this means that when I'm using Vegas or Premiere it'll offload it as well, being integrated into the OS and all?
That'd make life soooo much better!
Quote anonymuos 3rd June 2009, 08:27
What they're not telling you is:
1. You can't transcode files from/to HDD or on the same local HDD.
2. Hardly any codec and format settings or video properties can be customized. You've no control over the settings, how do you make the video compatible with a particular device, especially ones which use databases to store media instead of the file system?
3. Transcoding only has meaning when transferring to portable devices/flash media. Non-GPU accelerated transcoding is already available in Windows Media Player 11 on Windows XP and Vista (Sync tab).
Quote Saivert 4th June 2009, 05:11
lol at HoursBeforeDawn: Sure some people foresighted a general compute shader system like DX11 Compute, but it's a while since NVIDIA purchased AGEIA and ported PhysX to CUDA. Also CUDA has been available and working for a while now. DX11 Compute is just now arriving.

I'm sure a lot of research teams now using NVIDIA's tech appreciated it. Or should they have waited for Microsoft to act and make a compute system?

Get real please.
Quote sui_winbolo 4th June 2009, 06:43
Quote:
Originally Posted by anonymuos
What they're not telling you is:
1. You can't transcode files from/to HDD or on the same local HDD.
2. Hardly any codec and format settings or video properties can be customized. You've no control over the settings, how do you make the video compatible with a particular device, especially ones which use databases to store media instead of the file system?
3. Transcoding only has meaning when transferring to portable devices/flash media. Non-GPU accelerated transcoding is already available in Windows Media Player 11 on Windows XP and Vista (Sync tab).

Oh no!!! "anonymuos" is here.
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