What hardware/software to get fastest possible access time in AVC/h264 files?

[the_truth]

Sometimes I watch a video that I don't want to see from beginning to the end, but only some parts. Sometimes I need to quickly find some scene/spot in a video. The less keyframes there are, the longer it takes to seek random place in a video.

What hardware/software configuration I need to make seeking time as fast as possible?

I mean if I to build a new PC, what hardware is there to get fast access time by fast decoding?

Edit:
I need fast decoding hardware, because setting the player to jump only to keyframes works well with bigger jumps, but it can't work with smaller jumps like 5 second.

What hardware I have to buy? What GPUs are the best at decoding speed? What about CPUs? Overcloack a Sandy Bridge? Ivy Bridge is faster at decoding at the same clocks? Wait for Haswell?

[detmek]

You could actually set your player to search only on keyframes. That would make seeking very fast. If you use madVR lowering CPU and GPU queue will also increase seeking speed.

[the_truth]

You could actually set your player to search only on keyframes. That would make seeking very fast. If you use madVR lowering CPU and GPU queue will also increase seeking speed.

OK, I didn't know about madVR queue. But what about hardware?

I need fast decoding hardware, because setting the player to jump only to keyframes works well with bigger jumps, but it can't work with smaller jumps like 5 second. <<---- Added that to the first message as well.

[nevcairiel]

A good CPU with a good software decoder can decode up to 300-400 fps, which should be plenty for fast seeking.
GPUs are usually a bit more limited when it comes to decoding speed, the only GPU which can achieve also up to 400 fps is Intels iGPU.

A i7 Ivy Bridge can give you both, a fast CPU and the Intel iGPU, if you so desire.

[the_truth]

A i7 Ivy Bridge can give you both, a fast CPU and the Intel iGPU, if you so desire.

So, will combined resulted speed be something like 600 fps?

[J_Darnley]

No you can only use one of them. Either you run a software decoder (libavcodec, coreavc) which will use the CPU or you use software which can use the hardware decoder (like DGIndexNV for Nvidia cards)

[the_truth]

Do you know how fast Haswell's iGPU will be with decoding? I'm not sure about it, but it will probably support higher resolution and higher bitrate, and as result more fps in seeking within a usual 1080p h264 video?

[benwaggoner]

What level of seek precision do you need? If it needs to be down to the frame, More IDR frames (as you noted) and more non-ref B-frames can help. Non-ref B-frames don't need to be decoded to get to any particular frame unless it is a non-ref B. Frame-accurate seeking performance is roughly inversely linear to IDR frequency/b-frame frequency.

Can you predict where you'd like to seek to before encoding? If so, a qpfile can just make those frames be IDR, and you can skip all the rest.

[the_truth]

I do not encode any of those videos. If I did, I would put keyframes much more often.

[movmasty]

Sometimes I watch a video that I don't want to see from beginning to the end, but only some parts. Sometimes I need to quickly find some scene/spot in a video. The less keyframes there are, the longer it takes to seek random place in a video.

What hardware/software configuration I need to make seeking time as fast as possible?

I mean if I to build a new PC, what hardware is there to get fast access time by fast decoding?

Edit:
I need fast decoding hardware, because setting the player to jump only to keyframes works well with bigger jumps, but it can't work with smaller jumps like 5 second.

What hardware I have to buy? What GPUs are the best at decoding speed? What about CPUs? Overcloack a Sandy Bridge? Ivy Bridge is faster at decoding at the same clocks? Wait for Haswell?
Put in a h264 decoding card as once existed mpeg2
decoding cards.

A question:
Does h264 decoding cards exsist?

[Guest]

Yes, accelerated video decoding is available on modern video cards. Many players use DXVA for HW acceleration.