PAVP Mode

Common Options : Paranoid, Lite, Disabled

Quick Review

PAVP (Protected Audio Video Path) enables hardware accelerated decoding of the encrypted video stream by the Intel integrated graphics core. Intel offers two PAVP modes - Paranoid and Lite.

When set to Paranoid, the video stream is encrypted and its decoding is accelerated by the integrated graphics core. In addition, 96 MB of system memory will be reserved exclusively for use by PAVP.

When set to Lite, the video stream is encrypted and its decoding is accelerated by the integrated graphics core. No system memory will be reserved for use by PAVP.

When set to Disabled, the hardware-accelerated decoding of video content protected by HDCP is disabled.

If you wish to play HDCP-protected content, you should select the Lite option. It allows hardware-accelerated decoding of the video stream. The graphics core will grab system memory for use by PAVP only when it is needed and release it after use.

The allocation of PAVP stolen memory may be necessary to allow some applications to stream lossless audio formats like Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HS MA. In such cases, you will need to set this BIOS option to Paranoid. However, this takes up 96 MB of system memory and also disables the Windows Aero interface.

You should only use the Disabled setting if you intend to use an external graphics card to accelerate the decoding of the video stream, or if you wish to test the ability of the CPU to handle decryption of the video stream.

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