Cyberlink promises 50% less cpu utilization with new PowerDVD pack

Videos encoded with the H.264 video codec, which many consider to be the successor the older MPEG-2 compression used by DVDs, have generally required heavy duty computing power to play back smoothly. Cyberlink, known for their PowerDVD software included on many laptops, will be releasing their new PowerDVD MPEG-4 AVC Pack next month that promises to accelerate playback of H.264. In addition, on certain Nvidia-powered systems, Cyberlink says that users will see a reduction in CPU utilization by as much as 50%.

The H.264 codec is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 and AVC. It is meant for efficient compression of high-definition content and millions of H.264 compressed clips, many from Apple’s Quicktime site, have already been downloaded and viewed on the Internet. The codec will also be used in future HD-DVD and Blu-ray movie discs.

Cyberlink’s PowerDVD decoder pack will be available sometime in March.