OK, this “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in” for Nero needs some further experimentation but it actually seems reasonably stable and usable when using an HD DVD disc. Video quality is good but I suspect it could be better.
My setup is as follows:
ViewSonic N3250W 32" 16:9 8ms HD Ready LCD TV With HDMI
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
2GB PC3200 RAM
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
eVGA 8800GTS 320MB
ATI HDTV Wonder
ATI TV Wonder 650
Sapphire T550P
PowerColor T550P PCIe
NEC ND-3540A
WD 320 GB HDD
Seagate 500 GB HDD
Maddog BTX/ATX 500W PSU
Vista RC2 (have two Vista Home Premium licenses and multiple MCE 2K5 licenses)
XBox 360 MCE Extender
XBox 360 HD DVD Drive
One major problem with the “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in” for Nero is that it doesn’t seem to use
ANY hardware assistance from the installed GPU / VPU instead putting the full load of decoding on the CPU!!! Using the included and ubiquitous “King Kong” HD DVD the CPU cores were loaded to about ~90%. With effective hardware assistance from the installed 8800GTS CPU utilization should be more on the order of ~20% maybe ~30%. Having said that, the video was relatively smooth despite the lack of the otherwise necessary hardware acceleration.
I wonder if they want another ~$24.99 for a hardware assistance plug-in?
Still, my license of Nero 7 Ultra Enhanced was FREE because I won it in a contest along with some addition computer hardware totaling an approximate ~$1000. Therefore, ~$24.99 + the cost of the Xbox HD DVD drive isn’t that bad for getting off the ground with HD DVD. Users that already have Nero 7 are in a similar position. Just be sure your system is robust enough to take the load.
***Edit***
I Just have to correct that there is indeed a “Hardware Acceleration” option in Nero Showtime with the “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in” under:
Options > Video > Hardware Acceleration
However, selecting the “Hardware Acceleration” checkbox causes Showtime to either freeze or crash when playing an HD DVD. This could be due in part to the current state of nVidia drivers or some other anomaly so I don’t know that it is Nero’s fault.
***edit***
Just another follow up:
Using the included VC-1 encoded HD DVD “King Kong” title I was able to finally get “Hardware Acceleration” working with the Nero Showtime “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in”.
CPU utilization with “Hardware Acceleration” ON was in the 60% range
CPU utilization with “Hardware Acceleration” OFF was in the 90% range
I’m of the opinion that CPU utilization should be lower with “Hardware Acceleration” ON but it is a noteworthy improvement nonetheless. One would think PowerDVD 6.5 / 7.1 / 7.3 would have lower CPU usage with “Hardware Acceleration” ON using the same hardware but this should be done on a title by title bases.
***edit**
Just a note on buying the “Blu-Ray/HD DVD Video Plug-In”:
I had some trouble trying to add the plug-in to the cart initially for purchase. I was using IE7 in Vista RC2 and I decided to switch to an HP MCE 2K5 PC with IE6. Once on the MCE 2K5 PC I was able to add the plug-in to the cart and buy it using “America” as the place of purchase.