Earlier today, AMD released a Catalyst drive hotfix that introduces the company’s new ATI Stream transcoding runtime.

The runtime should enable quicker transcoding with lower CPU loads as the company’s technical manager explained that AMD “unlocked” the video processor in order to enable non-real-time decoding. He also added how resolution scaling on the GPU saves a lot of memory bandwidth but he did say that the CPU still handles tasks such as entropy estimation.

This should mean many a great thing for Avivo, but the company plans to help its partners in integrating the transcoding engine in their apps, such as CyberLink’s MediaShow Espresso, PowerDirector 7, ArcSoft SimHD, etc. The company’s representative said now there are many more, but he wasn’t eager to provide names just yet.

You can download the hotfix here and find out more here.