Fastest AVC Encoder?

[DocMAX]

hello

i'm searching for the fastest dshow avc/h264 encoder. right now i'm using ffmpeg, but im sure there is a faster one out there.

thanks

[leoenc]

Last time I checked Mainconcept was the fastest, but couldn't match x264's quality, IMO.

[Sharktooth]

i think ATI has the fastest encoder. but it produce really low quality encodes.

[Adub]

Remember you have to trade quality for speed. Usually at least.

[St Devious]

i think ATI has the fastest encoder. but it produce really low quality encodes.

and i heard its not stable .

anyway can x264 be modified to use Graphic Card's power like ATI's H.264 encoder ? What r the challenges of doing so ?

[Sergey A. Sablin]

and i heard its not stable .

anyway can x264 be modified to use Graphic Card's power like ATI's H.264 encoder ? What r the challenges of doing so ?

ati encoder doesn't use any acceleration from video card. at least the version I've checked.

[St Devious]

ati encoder doesn't use any acceleration from video card. at least the version I've checked.

look at this :

http://www.geek.com/atis-avivo-xcode-encodes-video-fast-real-fast/
(http://www.geek.com/atis-avivo-xcode-encodes-video-fast-real-fast/)

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1281

http://www.chip.de/artikel/c1_artikel_17670022.html

[Sergey A. Sablin]

look at this :

http://www.geek.com/atis-avivo-xcode-encodes-video-fast-real-fast/
(http://www.geek.com/atis-avivo-xcode-encodes-video-fast-real-fast/)

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1281

http://www.chip.de/artikel/c1_artikel_17670022.html

check out MSU H.264 comparison 2005 for details.
http://compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/mpeg-4_avc_h264_2005_en.html

I personally haven't seen any difference in performance with either ATI or nVidia video card with same other hw.

[Adub]

Supposedly it is possible to modify X264 to use some of the GPU's processing power, but I think it is more of a headache than anyone would willingly take on. Besides, x264 is already pretty darn optimized, so there really isn't that much more speed you can squeeze out of it. There is more quality like psy optimiztion, but our developers are working on it.

Maybe not psy optimization directly, but something else for sure.

[jam937]

I would still like more proof, but here is a response I got from AIT support.


I asked this question to ATI support:

"Does your Avivo software use the GPU of the card for transcoing video? I know it does for decoding and watching video, but I am specifically interested in whether it uses it for converting video from one format to another (mpg2 -> mp4)"

I got this response:

"Yes, the Avivo feature uses the video card GPU. The Avivo Video Converter accepts almost any video file format as a source, and outputs to many different file formats including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX, WMV, H.264/AVCT*, and more. Compared to conventional conversion file methods, the Avivo Video Converter cuts total transcoding time by up to 80%, making it the new benchmark for high performance transcoding. "

Regards,

Pier Bottero
AMD Technical Service Center

[ChronoCross]

good ol marketing.

It's meaningless without quality.

[Theliel]

avivo software dont use hardware acceleration for h264 encoder. This question was discuss time ago. Its very easy to see. Only you need a monitoring software for VRAM, GPU temp, gpu accelerations flags... and you can see that your card are always idle.

marketing :)

in theory is possible use hardware acceleration for h264 enconder. The best approximation should be CG or CUDA, but for the moment we only can wait.

[foxyshadis]

The best proof was the fact that the software was cracked years ago to work on systems with any graphics card - lift the card out completely and still get the exact same encoding speed, seems just a bit suspicious unless ATI has perfected wireless power transfer.

[Jay Bee]

good ol marketing.

It's meaningless without quality.

IMO there's quite a difference between marketing and outright lying...

[Inventive Software]

I dunno, there's a lotta bullshit in marketing...

[Sharktooth]

AVIVO encoder uses the GPU... but not for encoding... just for decoding!
For example, when encoding a mpeg2 stream o h.264 it uses the GPU for asssisting the mpeg2 decoding...

[Sagekilla]

AVIVO encoder uses the GPU... but not for encoding... just for decoding!
For example, when encoding a mpeg2 stream o h.264 it uses the GPU for asssisting the mpeg2 decoding...

Now that would be an interesting feature to see Avisynth support... Hardware based decoding of source video files. Would really help when trying to recode high def material to a lower resolution.

[burfadel]

Now that would be an interesting feature to see Avisynth support... Hardware based decoding of source video files. Would really help when trying to recode high def material to a lower resolution.

Thats true, the Mpeg2 source filter is part of the DGmpeg programme (dgdecode.dll). Maybe if someone with the knowledge could assist Neuron2 in developing a new Dgdecode, with GPU decode support (or at least SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4 support). Its a excellent programme, especially considering the number of people developing it!

[lucassp]

Thats true, the Mpeg2 source filter is part of the DGmpeg programme (dgdecode.dll). Maybe if someone with the knowledge could assist Neuron2 in developing a new Dgdecode, with GPU decode support (or at least SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4 support). Its a excellent programme, especially considering the number of people developing it!

MPEG2 doesn't eat that much CPU time. An H264/AVC decoder would need some speedup from a GPU.

[Jay Bee]

AVIVO encoder uses the GPU... but not for encoding... just for decoding!
For example, when encoding a mpeg2 stream o h.264 it uses the GPU for asssisting the mpeg2 decoding...

Can't confirm.

I just played a 1080i MPEG-2 TS file using the Cyberlink dxva decoder and the GPU temp rose by 5°. Played with DScaler and no increase. Encoded with Avivo and also no increase.

What was interesting though is that Avivo opened 7 instances of Haali Splitter at the same time! That probably means that they were planning to highly parallelize the process and then send them to the GPU shaders but never got round to finishing the software. Maybe because they found out that CPU is faster anyway?


"Yes, the Avivo feature uses the video card GPU. The Avivo Video Converter accepts almost any video file format as a source...

I think I just got it. He says that Avivo uses the GPU and that Avivo Converter encodes video. He doesn't say that Avivo Converter uses the GPU. As I said, marketing shouldn't be outright lying and this guy knows his stuff...

[Sagekilla]

MPEG2 doesn't eat that much CPU time. An H264/AVC decoder would need some speedup from a GPU.

Yes, that's what I was thinking about actually. I've done encodes from AVC sources and the speed loss is quite significant compared to a MPEG-2 source.