We recieved a lot of feedback in regards to features, quality and performance that we wanted to address.

For answers to our most common questions, we are providing the below Q&A.

Q&A

Q: What are the specific issues users of ATI Video Converter may encounter?

A: Users running 32-bit software on 64-bit systems are encountering issues getting quality output from the encoder and 32-bit users have also experienced some anomalies in the playback. It was not released for support on 64-bit operating systems. Our engineering teams have been alerted of the 32-bit issues and are currently working to address them. We have a defined roadmap for the application and plan to add new baseline functionality, ease-of-use and stability in coming versions.

Q: Why are reviewers seeing so little GPU processing during transcoding?

A: The ATI Video Converter uses the GPU for only a portion of the video encoding. Specifically, the GPU currently offloads only the motion estimation portion of the encoding pipeline which is the most compute intensive part of the encoder. The GPU is particularly well-suited for this task. Given that a fixed workload is being offloaded to the GPU the load on the GPU may be relatively low or high based on the specific model of GPU.

Q: When will the stability and quality of the ATI Video Converter improve in a new release?

A: We have a defined roadmap for the application and plan to add new baseline functionality, ease-of-use and stability in coming versions. We are evaluating now when we can most quickly offer those improvements, and will update you as soon as we have more information.

Q: Why did AMD release such a buggy software application into the market?

A: The ATI Video Converter is a basic utility that introduces users of Catalyst to the capabilities of Stream processing on 32-bit operating systems. While it isn’t perfect, The level of functionality and quality is appropriate for maximizing the conversion speed on the most widely used video formats. Improvements are already being made and users can expect to have a much higher quality experience with future revisions.

Q: Why does ATI Video Converter not work on 64-bit operating systems when so many PCs are moving in that direction?

A: While the move to 64-bit is well underway, 32-bit OS’s satisfy the mainstream consumer and the ATI Video Converter was to fill that segment first. We are evaluating our roadmap for future improvements, including the possibility of offering a 64-bit solution.

Also, I’ve raised that ticket with ATI support, but no joy just yet. Still holding out they will respond.

but was your source video, and to which format were u trying to transcode to? Also, which quality setting you use?

I’m also in touch with ATI, and am waiting for a response about that and a couple other small things I found. Once I get a response I’ll post it here.

I’ve noted you only paid lip service to actually ‘testing’ AVIVO’s supposedly new and improved functionality due to Stream Computing: you only showed screens of the process. A proper review should include a comparison between different version of AVIVO to SHOW the actual claimed improvement.

To whet your interest, I did a comparison myself between the AVIVO versions in catalyst 8.10 and 8.12 RC3, and the officially released catalyst 8.12.

Hardware:
AMD Phenom 9600+ BlacK Edition (stock clocks)
DFI 790FX M2R
Sapphire HD 4870 X2 2GB
4GB Crucial Ballistix Tracers
Vista Home Premium SP1

I encoded a 348MB xvid video file using the Portable Media profile in AVIVO, with quality setting set to High.
These were my results:
cat 8.10 2m13s
cat 8.12 RC3 2m00s
cat 8.12 2m16s

WTH?

Also of interest, is the fact that CPU utilisation was EXACTLY the same for all three tests. Previously. AVIVO only used CPU power, and since Cat 8.12 had exactly the same CPU utilisation profile as previous AVIVO versions, the only conclusion I can make at this stage is that Stream Computing via the Graphics card IS NOT WORKING in catalyst 8.12 (might be a function of my specific hardware setup, but I have my doubts…), and is STILL running ONLY off the CPU.

I’ve logged a fault with ATI, but have yet to receive any communication with them on the phenomena i’ve observed. I am hoping that independent reviewers as yourself might be able to forthcoming with a quicker response.
I look forward to that response.

And that AVIVO video transcoder has been around for ages now!! looks exactly the same as before, and seems to be next to useless as before aswell (hardly any formats actually come thru working after transcoding.)

Come on ATI i know you can do better than this.