NX Express & HD

[pgovotsos]

Hello,
I'm thinking about buying NX Express but I have a question about it's HD abilities. The comparison chart says "Onboard DV codec chip for hardware- assisted realtime DV editing and output". Is there any hardware assist for realtime HD editing?
Thanks,
Panagiotis

[GrassValley_BH]

The board has a hardware line-scaler which does the conversion from sub-Full HD frame sizes to Full HD. For example, HDV and XDCAM use 1440x1080 while P2 HD uses 1280x1080. The hardware line-scaler converts those to full 1920x1080 resolution for output, freeing the CPU from having to do it and providing a better quality image as well.

Other than that, there's no HD processing assistance on the hardware, all of the video processing is done by your CPU(s).

[pgovotsos]

Thanks Brandon!

[pgovotsos]

Actually, a followup. What does that gain me in the HD world (in plain english - nontechnical). How does it compare to the aceleration on the (sorry for mentioning the enemy) Matrox RT.X2 LE?

Thanks

[GrassValley_BH]

In HDV/XDCAM/HDCAM there are 1440 samples per line. However, Full HD 1080i is 1920 samples per line. So, those 1440 samples need to be upscaled to 1920 samples.

Likewise, DVCPRO uses 1280 samples per line. So those 1280 samples need to be upscaled to 1920 samples.

There are a variety of ways to do the upscaling. You can do it in software or hardware. Most software does it a simple way, which can result in details that phase in and out on horizontal pans.

Imagine looking through hanging vertical blinds at a scene behind it as you walk by (the scene is now panning horizontally). You can discern the scene pretty well and it seems normal. Now move the blinds so the vanes are now swinging and look at the scene again. As you walk by you'll notice certain things appear, then disappear from view - even though they're still there.

The hardware line-scaler applies a more complex algorithm to perform the upscaling to avoid this "phase in, phase out" type of effect. If this was done in software, it would require significant CPU usage. So we do it in hardware to leave the CPU available for real-time effects processing.

In short - you get a better displayed image, even from the same digital frame.

Sorry, that's as non-technical as I can make that particular thing...

Matrox RT.X2 acceleration is a different matter altogether. The Matrox cards perform effects acceleration by using the hardware to process some of the effects. Currently, EDIUS processes effects purely in software (except for Xplode, which can use the GPU).

[pgovotsos]

Thanks again Brandon. One last quick question about the boards (NX Express & SP). Do they have a hardware MPEG encoder like my DVStorm does or is it all software? If I'm reading the web page correctly (never a good assumption), the NX Express does and the SP does not. If not, can I have the DVStorm AND one of the newer boards both installed in the system so I can continue to use Stormencoder?

Thanks

[GrassValley_KH]

You've got it right - EDIUS NX Express has the encoder and EDIUS SP doesn't. The smaller board that comes with the two-board NX package handles the encoding the same way that the StormEncoder board attachment did with the DVStorm.

[Aristotelis]

If not, can I have the DVStorm AND one of the newer boards both installed in the system so I can continue to use Stormencoder?

yes you can...

http://ediusforum.grassvalley.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1154

however there is no point on that... software mpeg encoding has better quality and in modern systems is much faster as well...

[pgovotsos]

yes you can...

http://ediusforum.grassvalley.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1154

however there is no point on that... software mpeg encoding has better quality and in modern systems is much faster as well...

Can you explain this further? I would have thought Canopus hardware encoding & Canopus software encoding would be using the same code. My current editing system is only a P4 3.06 Ghz system. Would software encoding relly be faster than hardware?

In Edius, can you select whether hardware or software encoding? How?

Thanks,
Panagiotis

[Aristotelis]

I'm not sure what are the technical difrenences between software and hardware encoding... however from my experience I know that software gives higher quality...

In your P4 system, hardware encoding will be faster but in a core2duo system software will be much faster...

if you have a dvstorm board with the hardware encoder installed then you can select software or hardware encoding withing procoder express

if you have the nx board with the hardware encoder then there is an extra exporter called firecoder in Edius export dialog...

[STORMDAVE]

Yeah on a P4 it takes ages to render to Mastering quality out of ProCoder, but if you use the hardware encoder it will be pretty fast.

On my Mac Pro I use Mastering and it renders to SD MPEG2 faster than realtime, if I use the Preview DVD target in PC3 it will be much faster than realtime, usually 2hr timelines take about 30 mins or so.

[GrassValley_BH]

Software encoding has the advantage that it can take as much time as it needs to encode every frame. Software encoding from file has the added advantage of being able to analyze the entire file (multi-pass and farther look back/ahead). High-end hardware encoders can also do multi-pass encoding.

Anyway, long story short, unless you're running pre-2005 hardware, you're better off using software encoding.