Hardware decoding vs software decoding in 4k h264h265 video. This shift has been driven by cost savings of the initial hardware purchase. Today we investigate the advantages and disadvantages of hardware vs software streamingrecording setups and why you might choose one. What are the differences between hardware and software. All software utilizes at least one hardware device to operate. For example, a video game, which is software, uses the computer processor, memory, hard drive, and video card to run. On a very basic level, hardware codecs and smartphone apps do the same thing. However, youve encountered one of the problems with hardware encoding. If youre suffering from artifacting pixellation you can. The primary resource that is consumed with software decoding is cpu time. Encoders play an important role in maintaining a highquality live stream.
Here are some of the more popular software and hardware audio broadcast codecs used for outside broadcasts. Software has always been able to adopt and update incredibly fast. Dec 03, 2018 but decoding hevc using software consumes more cpu power. Note that hardware encoders demand more time for development or design and many times manufacturers add older codecs into them. A codec can be software or a device that encodes decodes digital signals.
Similarities and differences we all know what agile is and what software development means, so lets start by defining what we mean by hardware and hardware development. Rather, the article will give a basic overview of different video solutions and will delve deeper into a newer and increasingly relevant subset of the world of video. Software interacts with you, the hardware youre using, and with hardware that exists elsewhere. Theoretically, hardware encoding should be more efficient and be much faster than software. The matrox m264 hardware is supported by the matrox dsx software development kit. The term codec is the shortened form of coderdecoder. Every time a new codec is introduced, new hardware is needed. Manages the amount of bus bandwidth available on the hd audio link. To transmit hdr content, the system needs to be equipped with either dp 1. An analysis and comparison of softwarebased codecs against the. Pros and cons of using a hardware or software encoder in your live. It is a hardware or software device that encodes and decodes a data stream.
If the hardware sucks or youre not telling the controls to use adequate bitrate youll end up with mediocre results. An analysis and comparison of softwarebased codecs against. A sufficiently fast general purpose cpu could be faster than dedicated hardware. Tip hardware accelerated streaming is a premium feature and requires an active plex pass subscription to play your video smoothly and on a huge variety of devices, plex media server often needs to convert the video to a different quality or a compatible format. Software is a program, such as an operating system or a web browser, that is able to instruct a computers hardware to perform a specific.
A codec is a piece of software or hardware used to transmit av communication. Software codecs are flexible in that one can change conversion details and updates to the codec can be done over the internet. It makes them inflexible as well as restricted with noncustomizable platforms. This month, were talking about smartphone apps and hardware codecs. The intel high definition audio specification see the intel hd audio website describes an audio hardware architecture that is being developed as the successor to the intel ac97 codec and controller specification.
Why hardware encoders are better for live streaming. Hardware encoding takes some of the load off of cpu but requires a much higher bitrate to make up for the loss of quality. Lets explore typical video conferencing features to determine what differentiates hardware and software codecs. These days, you can opt for either a hardware codec or a software codec.
Elgato game capture hd and hardware accelerated decoding and. Hey all, so i just upgraded from obs classic to studio and im pretty happy except that im a bit lost in settings, especially this one. Hardware refers specifically to electrical or electromechanical devices, which often contain firmware or embedded software. Along with the same inroom quality camera options, software codecs can offer security features such as password security and endtoend encryption. Provides hardware configuration information, including the number of serial dataout sdo lines and dma engines. A codec can be hardware based or software based, which is where we get the terms hard codec and soft codec. Latency and price point are two major factors that fit into comparison table of hardware and software encoders.
Vidcoder is another free and open source video transcoding software that can also be used as an hevc converter. Here are a few key questions to ask yourself when considering whether a software or hardware encoder will work best for your live streaming needs. Video conferencing choose hard codec or soft codec. Pc, then it was about the best daw, then it was about the best plugins. A codec is a device or computer program which encodes or decodes a digital data stream or. May 16, 2017 the term codec is the shortened form of coderdecoder.
For video conferencing, the codec can be a specially designed hardware appliance that has basically no other function than to deliver a highquality video conferencing experience, which it does very well. This feature is currently tested with prereleased os but not yet available with. Welcome back to codec answer guy presents, the series where we address the questions we hear most frequently from broadcast professionals. Is that to say the best hardware encoder is better than the best software encoder. The operating systems uaa driver components can service an audio solution that exposes the hd audio. The whole decoding process becomes much smoother and lower cpu usage is a big advantage from hevc hardware decoder. Aes full hardware implementation of nist fips pub 197 algorithm. An alternative solution for hardware encoding is an fpgabased encoder, which. This document provides an overview of the different coderdecoders codecs used with cisco ios. A soft codec is a codec that comes in software form. In addition, there are now tools like new codecs, webrtc, cloud and. Today we investigate the advantages and disadvantages of hardware vs software streamingrecording setups and why you might choose one over the. When new codec optimizations come out, encoding package updates follow very soon after.
Unless youre using win2k or xp in which case youll have to use a software codec as the hardware mjpeg of the marvel is not supported. In it, you get three versions of hevc codecs that you can select namely h. For example, a photosharing software program on your pc or phone works with you and your hardware to take a photo and then communicates with servers and other devices on the internet to show that photo on your friends devices. Understanding the types of video conferencing software neurilink. Hardware is a physical device, something that one is able to touch and see. Codecs can be pieces of hardware hard codecs or software soft codecs. Its known to all that software decoding can support you to decode almost any video codec, be it h264, h265, mpeg4, mpeg2, vp89, divx, wmv, 3g2, etc. Or, the codec might be based on a more generalpurpose computer. Plus, hardware based codecs like the sx80 have been around for a long time and examined in detail already.
Oct 04, 2012 software encodings greatest advantages over pure hardware encoders are its flexibility and quality. Nov 03, 2002 most people in the know report the hardware encoders are better than the software encoders. Anatomy of a hardware video codec design and reuse. Mar 30, 2017 a quick video to show that nvenc is not a replacement for software x264 encoding. If your vendorsupplied avstream minidriver includes hardware based codec support, or you have implemented a custom mft to support your hardware, you must supply an x. If you want more information on running an outside broadcast of an event, read my article on radio outside broadcasts from live music events for some pointers. Traditional hardware codecs are generally made by one of only a. The good, the bad, the ugly audio video group audio. Enablingdisabling hardware encoding is dependent on the type of intel cpu used. Hdr video content is supported using either the hevc main 10 or vp9.
Consumer dv quality is not the higher quality of professional broadcastgrade dv codecs. Compared with average hevc converting software, its more efficient to built a hevc hardware decoder into chips to decode h. Software decoding is superior to hardware decoding in this aspect. Pc audio codecs high definition audio codecs software files. May 08, 2020 questions to ask when comparing software and hardware live streaming encoders the most important thing to consider when investing in an encoder is how well it suits your needs. Nov 27, 2019 software interacts with you, the hardware youre using, and with hardware that exists elsewhere. X264 does cpu or rtx gpu encoding work best for twitch. This feature is only available if an intel cpu with intel quick sync support is used. Hardware vs software difference and comparison diffen. They are typically very easy to set up, and you can tweak or change most aspects of the codecs to get the bitrate and video quality you desire. However, the software codec is dependent upon the processor thats running the codec software. Accepts unsolicited responses and wakeup events from codecs. Word processing software uses the computer processor, memory, and hard drive to create and save documents.
I dont know whats the difference between both and whats the better one. On the other hand, pro codecs cost plenty of money, and they cost a lot of skill and experience in handling, not to mention the hardware, software, and other studio gear that few members here can afford. Mankind has been at each others throats over how to do things the right way, better and worse, good and bad, and now its coming back to the old argument. Please refer to the matrox dsx developer products datasheet for information on file io, software codecs and cpu effects.
Hardware codecs are fast and high quality, dedicated codecs. Besides these hevc codecs, you can also select standard codecs like h. A blog by brad kult, hga architects, and engineers over the past several years there has been a shift from hardware to software video conferencing. The hardware decoder is usually part of the video card any nvidia or ati has had it for a while. However, its important to verify the security features of any software platform before finalizing a selection. Validating and certifying hardware codecs windows drivers.
Nov 03, 2017 software and hardware codecs have much in common. After all both are encoders simply processing ones and zeros stored on the hard. As a fellow g400 marvel owner, id say stick with the hardware assisted capture. The specifications for skype for business, for instance, list that their. For reference i have a 6700k, r9 390 and 16 gb of ram, if you need more info. Enable billions of colors with 10bit hevc intel software. If you have lots of disk space, you might want to try a non lossy capture codec like huffyuv. With the introduction of cisco ios software release 12. Its important to understand the difference between software and hardware video streaming encoders so that you have the information you need to choose the best option for your live streaming broadcasts in this post, well discuss the ins and outs of encoders.
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