In order to use PureVideo feature on your GeForce 6 or 7 series, you will need to:
nVidia decoder is a 30-day trial software. According to nVidia, they don’t give this software for free because they have to pay royalties to MPEG-LA and to Dolby Laboratories. Since not all users will use the enhancements described in this tutorial, they decided that this software would be optional, available to the users who are willing to pay between USD 19.95 and USD 49.95, depending on its version.
Ok, but for someone that has just spent USD 600 on a video card is frustrating – to say the least – to have to buy a USD 49.95 software in order to use all features provided by the video card. Anyway, c’est la vie…
Note: We we first published this tutorial, this software costed only USD 15. Now nVidia divided it into three different versions, consting between USD 19.95 and USD 49.95. Really frustrating.
On the download page for this software you will find all needed information in order to install the trial version, like user name and license number.
After installing Windows Media Player 10 and nVidia DVD Decoder, you will need to configure Windows Media Player to use the decoder located on the video card instead of using the system’s CPU.
To do that, run Windows Media Player 10 and go to Tools, Options, Performance tab, Advanced burron and configure like this:
- Under Video Acceleration, check the boxes “Use video mixing renderer” and “Use overlays”.
- Under DVD video, uncheck the box “Use video mixing renderer”.
- Uncheck the box “Enable full-screen mode switch”.
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Figure 1: Configuring Windows Media Player 10 to use the video processor located on the video card.
After performing this configuration, an icon called NVIDIA Decoders will appear on system tray anytime you run a MPEG-2 video or DVD on Windows Media Player 10. Double-clicking on this icon you can configure the video processor that is located on your video card. Notice that this icon will only show up when a MPEG-2 video or DVD is being played. On Figure 2 you can see the options that will appear.
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Figure 2: Configuring the video processor.
Even though the default configurations are enough for the majority, you can “play” with them in order to achieve better results, especially on de-interlacing feature.
