Grass Valley EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV
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A Closer Look at Speed Encoding Technology*
With the availability of an ever growing range of HDV cameras and decks, the demand for HD editing on PCs has increased. However, since HDV image data ranges from 1280x720 to 1440x1080 pixels in size with MPEG-2 compression, it takes considerable time to encode an output file, even with the latest high-speed CPUs.
The process of MPEG-2 encoding has few elements that can be treated in parallel independently, even if the encoding process involves parallel computation with multiple CPUs and/or multi-core CPUs. The overheads with this form of parallel processing increase steadily, over time, while encoding efficiency deteriorates, resulting in speeds that are slower than what is possible with multiple CPU/multi-core CPU configurations.
EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV solves this problem.
The basic idea on which Speed Encoder for HDV is based is very simple. EDIUS Speed Encoder first divides the video data into blocks, then each CPU core encodes multiple blocks simultaneously. EDIUS Speed Encoder then reassembles all encoded video data blocks into the final long GOP MPEG-2 stream. This process dramatically reduces the total encoding time.
Diagram
Reconnecting two blocks of MPEG data that were encoded separately is a delicate process. If the video is simply reconnected without care, the resulting video stream may contain faults within the GOP structure, making the stream invalid for export back out to HDV cameras and decks. The proprietary encoding and file connecting algorithms featured with EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV avoid this problem, creating perfect HDV MPEG-2 transport streams every time.
* EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV is based on Grid Encoding Technology from Rhozet Corporation.
Performance Test Results
To demonstrate the amazing performance of EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV, two simple tests were devised. The first test was also run with two other HDV MPEG-2 TS encoding solutions; ProCoder Express for EDIUS and Adobe® Premiere® Pro. The second test was between EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV and ProCoder Express for EDIUS only, but was run on two different configurations, illustrating the difference that having a single dual core CPU has over a standard single core CPU.
Test #1
The test system had the following specifications:
* CPU - Intel® Pentium® D running at 3.0GHz (single CPU, dual core)
* RAM - 2GB
* Operating System - Windows® XP Professional (SP2)
* NLE Software - EDIUS Pro 3 (v3.6), Adobe Premiere Pro (v1.5)
The sample footage was 1440x1080/60i HDV and captured using the CineForm Aspect HD™ codec for the Adobe Premiere Pro test and captured using the Canopus HQ codec for the EDIUS tests.
The sample footage captured had a duration of exactly 10 minutes and was exported from the timeline as 1440x1080/60i MPEG-2 (HDV Type 2).
| | Adobe Premiere Pro | ProCoder Express
for EDIUS | EDIUS Speed Encoder
for HDV |
| Encode time (h:mm:ss) | 0:30:33 | 0:29:59 | 0:18:31 |
| Frames per second (FPS) | 9.82 | 10.01 | 16.20 |
Adobe Premiere Pro took 30 minutes 33 seconds to encode the stream. It should be noted that at the time of writing, Adobe Premiere Pro does not allow you to encode HDV streams from the timeline without an HDV device being connected to the PC. Additionally, the export options do not offer any quality settings.
ProCoder Express for EDIUS took 29 minutes 59 seconds to encode the stream, using the “Highest Quality” setting.
EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV took 18 minutes 31 seconds to encode the stream, using the “Highest Quality” setting.
Test #1 shows that EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV is almost 1.5 times faster than Adobe Premiere Pro when encoding HDV.
Test #2
The dual core test system had the following specifications:
* CPU - Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition running at 3.2GHz, 800MHz FSB
* Mainboard Chipset – Intel 955X + ICH7R
* RAM - 2GB DDR2, 667MHz (512MB x 4)
* Operating System - Windows® XP Professional (SP2)
* NLE Software - EDIUS Pro 3 (v3.6)
The single core test system had the following specifications:
* CPU – Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz, 800MHz FSB
* Mainboard Chipset – Intel 865G + ICH4
* RAM – 1GB DDR 400MHz (512MB x 2)
* Operating System - Windows® XP Professional (SP2)
* NLE Software - EDIUS Pro 3 (v3.6)
As before, a 10-minute sample clip using the Canopus HQ codec was placed on the EDIUS timeline and exported. In all tests, the "Highest Quality" image setting was used.
| | ProCoder Express
for EDIUS |
| EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV
| | |
Computer
| Encode Time (h:mm:ss) | FPS | Encode Time (h:mm:ss) | FPS
| Speed Ratio
|
| Pentium 4 | 0:34:44 | 8.64 | 0:33:55 | 8.85 | 1.02 |
| Pentium Extreme Edition | 0:24:22 | 12.3 | 0:12:28 | 24.1 | 1.96 |
ProCoder Express for EDIUS took 34 minutes 44 seconds to encode on the Pentium 4 system, and 24 minutes 22 seconds on the Pentium Extreme Edition system.
EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV took 33 minutes 55 seconds to encode on the Pentium 4 system and 12 minutes 28 seconds on the Pentium Extreme Edition system.
The test #2 shows that on the Pentium Extreme Edition system, EDIUS Speed Encoder for HDV encodes at almost double the speed of ProCoder Express for EDIUS.
Supported Export Formats
HDV mode-1 (MPEG-2 Transport Stream)
* MP@H14 18.3Mbps CBR: 1280x720 (30p/25p/24p), 720x480 (60p/24p/24pA), 720x576 (50p)
* MP@ML 15Mbps CBR: 720x480 (30p), 720x576(25p)
* 48Khz, 16-bit, 2ch, 384kbps Layer-2 MPEG audio
HDV mode-2 (MPEG-2 Transport Stream)
* MP@H14 25Mbps CBR: 1440x1080 (60i/50i/30p/25p/24p)
* 48Khz, 16-bit, 2ch, 384kbps Layer-2 MPEG audio
SD (MPEG-2 Program Stream)
* MP@ML 6.5Mbps CBR: 720x480 (60i), 720x576 (50i)
* 48Khz, 16-bit, 2ch, 224kbps Layer-2 MPEG audio
