Any NVidia chipset from the past couple of years
can decode H.264 in hardware, with minimal CPU usage. Heck, even my lowly fanless GF6200 card here can do it.
The link seems to indicate only recent (2007+) chipsets can handle higher resolution video with minimal CPU use. It also seems to indicate that these benefits are more pronounced on mid to high end products, not the lower end. That means potentially paying close to $100 for a video card. Even the 6200 I had last week was $70
The GF6 series is getting long in the tooth these days -- at least 3-4 years old. And even those have HD decode support for MPEG2, though perhaps less acceleration for HD H.264. Duke's GF6200 fanless card was about $40 when we got it over two years ago.
Still, for situations where vendor lock-in and restricted customization are not of concern, a commercial "media extender" definitely looks like a good choice.
Cheers
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