It seems that the recently released AVIVO converter in ATI Catalyst 8.12 will soon face some competition. The rival is reported to come to the game as Badaboom 1.1, an updated version of a media converter that only works on NVIDIA GeForce 8 graphics cards series or later CUDA enabled GPUs. The same as ATI's application, Badaboom is set to harness the potential of the GPU, while benefiting from the CPU's capabilities.

The same as AVIVO, Badaboom Media Converter 1.1 is a dynamic new platform that allows users to get videos onto portable media players. Due to the fact that it uses both the CPU and the GPU, it enables faster conversion speeds, while also permitting the CPU to be used for everyday tasks. As the developers state, the converter delivers better conversion times so that users can enjoy the video for a longer period of time.

The Badaboom Media Converter is a simple to use tool for standard definition media conversion. The updated version includes new features and enhancements, such as:

• Support for additional input file formats and containers: DivX, Xvid, MPEG-1, VC-1, AAC Audio, AVI, MKV, among others. The file formats supported by Badaboom 1.0 will still be supported as well.
• New output profiles: YouTube, Blackberry Bold and Microsoft Zune have been added. User-customizable outputs are available as well.
• H.264 Main profile output: Provides even higher quality output than version 1.0, especially useful when outputting at resolutions higher than 480p. Baseline profile is still supported.
• 1920x1080 (1080p) output: The largest standard ATSC video resolution now available is an output option, which provides great video quality when combined with Main profile.
• Multi-GPU capability: Effectively doubles the transcode time of Badaboom 1.0 by enabling two Badaboom applications to run on two separate videos simultaneously. For computers with multiple NVIDIA GPUs in a system, users can launch one Badaboom for each GPU in the system and transcode multiple videos at the same time. For example, with the Badaboom 1.1 version of this feature, two NVIDIA GPUs can transcode two movies the time it would take Badaboom 1.0 to transcode one. Each NVIDIA GPU works on a different video to get the work done twice as fast.

Badaboom 1.0 stresses on its four main features, including ease of use for mainstream consumers and flexibility for enthusiasts, minimal CPU utilization for an optimized PC, uncompromising high image quality, and ultra-high transcoding speed. The new version of the media converter is expected to arrive in mid-December.