ArcSoft uses NVIDIA CUDA for DVD upscaling

ArcSoft, Inc. announced today the retail version of ArcSoft SimHD, a plug-in for ArcSoft TotalMedia™ Theatre, its universal high-definition multimedia player. SimHD is ArcSoft’s in-house upscaling technology, which simply brings most standard-definition video to near high-definition quality. SimHD performs this video upscaling work by utilizing the NVIDIA® CUDA™ parallel computing architecture to solve complex calculations in a fraction of the time required on a CPU.

"Our newly released upscaling technology, ArcSoft SimHD, is available now in retail to allow viewers to obtain an HD-like viewing experience on the PC from the existing standard DVDs,” said George Tang, ArcSoft Vice President and General Manager of Video and Home Entertainment Group. "The partnership with NVIDIA is an important step for us in delivering such an extraordinary experience to users with extremely sufficient power usage.”

TotalMedia Theatre takes advantage of the powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) in today’s PCs by using the NVIDIA CUDA architecture to provide sufficient power for SimHD‘s intensive post processing algorithms. NVIDIA GPUs are the only processors that can process these sophisticated algorithms in real time. The application is compatible with millions of NVIDIA GPUs from the GeForce 8 Series onwards, including GeForce® and Quadro® graphics processing units line.

“What a great way to upgrade your existing library of DVDs! All you need is TotalMedia Theatre and an NVIDIA GeForce GPU, and you can instantly turn your movies into near-HD quality,” said Michael Steele, General Manager of Visual Consumer Solutions at NVIDIA. “ArcSoft SimHD is another great example of how GPU computing is changing the world and providing consumers with real value.”