HAP - a codec for hardware accelerated video display

[LigH]

Just got surprised in the VideoHelp forum, so I wanted to surprise you as well:

HAP is a video codec optimized for utilizing the GPU to display video fast.

http://vdmx.vidvox.net/blog/hap

Disadvantages are the weak compression (an SSD is recommended for high resolutions) and the lack of a VfW codec (only QuickTime and DirectShow so far, I believe):

https://github.com/vidvox/hap
https://github.com/vidvox/hap-qt-codec/
http://www.renderheads.com/portfolio/HapDirectShow/

Now I wonder if anyone here feels like this is the yet missing link for his needs. :o

[foxyshadis]

Something like this is an obvious benefit if you lack Quicksync, NVEnc, or VCE... but at this point, you'd have to have some pretty old hardware. Realtime hardware AVC is hard to beat on a quality/size ratio, unless you need more streams at once than the hardware supports.

[pandy]

Something like this is an obvious benefit if you lack Quicksync, NVEnc, or VCE... but at this point, you'd have to have some pretty old hardware. Realtime hardware AVC is hard to beat on a quality/size ratio, unless you need more streams at once than the hardware supports.

Well... this codec has completely different purpose than h.264 which is obviously obfuscated/crippled due DRM in most of HW implementations - side to this DXT legal status seem to be more clear and alpha is default feature.
HAP can be located somewhere between HUFFYUV and Intra based lossy codec (but bitrate is always constant which sometimes can be positive)

[benwaggoner]

Well... this codec has completely different purpose than h.264 which is obviously obfuscated/crippled due DRM in most of HW implementations...
Codec and DRM are completely orthogonal. Someone could port this codec to work in TrustZone, Protected Media Path or whatever. And all hardware the plays H.264 allows playback of unencrypted H.264 content.

[pandy]

Codec and DRM are completely orthogonal. Someone could port this codec to work in TrustZone, Protected Media Path or whatever. And all hardware the plays H.264 allows playback of unencrypted H.264 content.

Sorry for not being clear - DRM affecting HW accessibility - lack of HW documentation, only binary blob with some functionality exposed, plenty mambos jumbos and quirks related to documented features - all this is usually "security by obscurity" (DRM is just excuse).
Also there is a problem with royalties related to H.264 and as such anything supported by HW and not covered by royalties seem to be better in real life - DXT compression is supported very well by even low class graphics controllers (they may lack decent video part but usually even texture compression works sufficiently good).
It may work even on old GPU.

btw You may consider even low end (cheap) FPGA capable to do decoding where H.264 decoder will require higher class silicone - so if you have available high bandwidth but nothing else then it is ok...