Aside from the MobileMedia Platform, Nvidia also unveiled the PureVideo HD technology, aimed at delivering HD DVD and Blu-ray movie playback on PCs.

PureVideo HD combines hardware acceleration from an Nvidia graphics processing unit, high definition movie player integration and HDCP feature support to make it easy for manufacturers and consumers to build PCs that can play HD DVD or Blu-ray movies.

"Consumer interest in blue-laser DVD technology on the PC is growing, we project that more than 35 million high-definition optical disk drives will be integrated into PCs in the next five years," said Wolfgang Schlichting, Research Director at IDC.

"The industry is on the threshold of a new era in entertainment, but typical consumers do not know what is required to play an HD movie on a PC. Therefore, an integrated solution such as PureVideo HD, which will give the user a high-quality experience when playing their HD movies on a PC, will be an important feature of a next-generation PC," he added.

HD movies are encoded in new formats that require special HD optical drives, hardware acceleration, HDCP compatible displays and new HD movie player software.

Nvidia PureVideo HD technology provides:

- Hardware acceleration for decoding high-definition movies in the required formats (H.264, VC-1, and MPEG-2) with minimal CPU utilization and low power consumption.
- Advanced post-processing features for razor-sharp HD movie playback at resolutions up to 1080p, the highest HD resolution available.
- Support by the leading HD movie player software companies that take advantage of PureVideo HD's hardware acceleration and HDCP features.

Leading system builders including Sony, Toshiba and Acer have adopted Nvidia GeForce GPUs with PureVideo HD technology to power their first PCs capable of playing Blu-ray and HD DVD movies.

HD movie software from Nero, CyberLink and InterVideo fully supports PureVideo HD technology. Graphics card manufacturers including MSI and ASUS will release video cards this summer supporting all features of Nvidia PureVideo HD.