Intel GMA 4500MHD & Windows 7 - Finally, H.264 Hardware Video Acceleration???

I just wanted to post my video playback experience with Windows 7 RC and my Acer Aspire 2930 laptop.....

After instaling the RC of windows 7- and updating all drivers - including the chipset, sata and display driver (via windows update) - and running the windows experience index tool - I opened up windows media player 12, and to my SHOCK and surprise - when i played a H.264 720p video - i was getting around 0-2% cpu average !!! It usually hovered at 0%, more often than not! And the video quality was acceptable , if not, very good!!!

Have any of you had similar experiences with your intel graphics chipset and windows 7?

If anyone is interested on how i got this kind of performance (when playing back video) do tell me! I will try to post back here the procedure.

I don't know anything about drivers really- but it seems to me that there is finally some sort of video acceleration (in this case , H.264) with this particular intel video chipset!

I was bumbed out with vista (lack of video acceleration) - but windows 7 is oh so good!!

Here is a pic:

 

I also noticed that the new included codecs provided with Windows 7 can access hardware acceleration!

I was getting about 3-4% processor utilization while playing 720p H264 content in Windows Media Player.

FINALLY, I don't need any bloated codec packs anymore! And I don't have to buy new software just to access hardware video acceleration! This is by far my favorite Windows 7 feature.

(I'm running on an Nvidia 8600m GT)

 

It can do HD acceleration on the graphics hardware on Vista with current drivers, but it requires a proper codec support to do it. You have to use programs like PowerDVD to have the proper acceleration. It's good Win7 has the codecs with the OS(if it really does).

 

The moment you run H264 content in Windows 7, right inside Windows Media Player, without needing ANY extra codecs, you will fall in love. The moment you realize the codec supports your GPU acceleration, you'll go on your second honeymoon.

New containers:
MP4
MOV
3GP
AVCHD
ADTS
M4A
WTV (new Windows Media based format for PVR based recordings)

New codecs:
H.264
MPEG4-SP
DivX
Xvid
MJPEG
DV
AAC-LC (regular AAC)
LPCM
AAC-HE

( source)

 

From 0% to 0-2%, so it got worse?

 

No, lol ! what i'm trying to say is - it hovered around 0% - most of the time - with a max of 2% a few times....

I hope this makes sense/is clear lol

 

Compared to 30%-50% when I DON'T have GPU acceleration, 0%-2% is amazing.

 

Yea but the OP said he used to hovered at 0%, now with windows 7 it's 2%, which mean worse.

 

He meant he was getting 0-2% as compared to the 30% before, with it hovering at 0% more often then NOT.

Make sense now?

 

I don't see 30% mentioned anywhere in the first post?

 

Lol, I think most people knew what the op meant.

 

I seriously need to spend more time on Win7.
EDIT: Post 1500! Huzzah!

 

Anyone notice the above mentioned on a Latitude E6400?

 

So I went to the intel site to download the driver and they would download; But when I try to install I get an error saying my device is not support, and I use the manufactures drivers or something bogus like that. I have Window 7 build 7200 with intel 4500hd(this on a Sony Vaio TT btw). Any ideas what the problem maybe?

 

same issue here on my samsung

 

Yeah my cpu usage is like at 40 with video 2% would be awesome.

 

Okay so I did a manual install of the Intel windows 7 drivers and it only went down to like 28%. Any ideas, on what can be done to improve video car performance/driver. Maybe some third party driver or something?

 

I have Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics but I used XP, CPU is so high when play HD videos with Windows Media player 11. However, I find proper codec for playing HD videos and CPU load is lower below 5%.

 

Hi, I have the 4500MHD and high CPU usage on Vista. Which codec fix the problem for you?

 

Shark007 codec pack.

http://shark007.net/

 

Thanks ofelas. I tried the vista codec pack, but still I don't think I am getting hardware acceleration. CPU is usually at 50% or higher with WMP or MPC-HC. My laptop is Dell Studio 1537 with Vista Home Premium.

When I turn on the H264 hardware decoding option in VCP settings, the lower panel ("decoder settings") shows the "Intel 4 series video chipset" (not exact wording, since I am not at the system now), but it is greyed out. Is it normal?

Thanks again for your help.

 

Hey everyone!

I haven't viewed this thread in awhile and i thought of posting the steps on how to get the video acceleration feature in windows 7 working with an Intel GMA 4500MHD card....

1) Make sure you have the latest graphics driver for your version of windows 7.
Apparently, they released a new driver dated the 27 of July, so it is fairly new.

Here is the link to the 64bit windows 7 driver for a 4series chipset ( Intel 4500mhd )

*** These are the desktop version of the 4series graphics drivers - they are usually the ones i use because they also include the laptop drivers and they update these more frequently (from what i observe) than the the ones i find in the laptop section***

2) I usually remove the old driver from my system (uninstall it through add remove programs) - and restart the pc.

3) Install the latest driver from intel - Make sure you are using the right driver for your windows 7 version (32bit vs 64bit)

4) * important * - After a successful install of the latest graphics driver, you need to run the Windows experience index tool . You do this by holding the windows key + pause break keys - a window pops up with 'windows experience index' - click there and -update your score- (it might say you need to refresh it: same thing)

5) after you run that tool, open windows media player on windows 7 and play a H.264 file.

ENJOY!

If you have any problems after doing the steps outlined above, make sure you are using the built in Microsoft codecs - I dont know if using another codec package (instead of the built in ones) might keep it from working...

Tell me if this works out for you

- Yodel

 

Those drivers posted work a little better but i am stil wating for drivers that give me decent performance on SL in medium-low, and good on low.