What real benefit comes from GPU accelerated NB Fx?

[Philip Howells]

Just as I don't believe my car will deliver anything like the miles per gallon the makers claim - shouldn't there be a law against this? - I'm sceptical about the claims of software manufacturers - especially when they want me to pay top dollar for alternative but unimproved versions of something I already own.

What in real world terms are the rendering time benefits of the GPU accelerated effects?

Specifically I need to use their excellent video Noise Reducer with some Hero 2 HD material recorded in low light. With my present set up (below) a few seconds clips is estimating several hours but before I shell out for new New Blue Fx I'd like to have from other users the assurance that the benefit will be substantial not merely marginal.

[Bluetongue]

Philip
All the earlier NB effects had to be rendered, some taking unproportional times
I have updated all mine and the results are excellent
Before playing a timeline after 2 to 5 frames Edius would choke

Now depending on the filter, and they all vary from RT to about 3-4 seconds before stutter, BUT
IT is now dependent on your GPU!!!
I have one that can be overclocked and once set it automatically ups the clock rate when required, the difference between normal and setting the overclock 450Mhz - 900Mhz and increasing the memory frequency has doubled the number of frames that play in RT before stutter and reduced render times if not pre rendered

If your GPU is low end you probably won't see much difference but a Hi end card will make a huge difference it the time for editing as well as exporting as the GPU is used during export IF you do not render

The Filter you want is Video Touchup in Video Essentials as the Nouse Reducer is broken in Edius and causes staircasing, Marcus knows about this and an update should be out soon

Regards Barry

[Philip Howells]

Barry, many thanks - your answer was exactly what I wanted - compare that with the bland "any recent card will do..." from NB.

Your remarks about the filter are invaluable too - despite my years in video I'm unaware of what staircasing actually means - care to enlighten an old hand?

Added later:

May I also enquire how the Video Touch Up is supposed to act in the same ay as Noise Reducer. The latter softened the blocks of colour and tightened the edges; the Video touch up actually seem to do little if nothing to improve my noisy images.

[Bluetongue]

Staircasing is where on diagonal lines they are not smooth, looks like a stairs as if one of the interlaced line sets is missing

The GPU filters are better than the non GPU and you probably would see a difference but there are some filters that are really intensive and require a real fast card to acquire RT, mine is there on most but there are some that still choke, and the GPU clocking definately makes a noticable difference
Double the clock speed, half the render time, or double the Real time play

A top end card with more processors I have no doublt would be even better

Regards Barry

[Bluetongue]

The touch up filter did not touch the edges only smoothed the noise on the flat surfaces
The GPU filters seem to work different compared to the ones before, I was surprised with the new Touch up as prevously I had discarded it as a non event

Not sure if the GPU's are available as a trial, I had some problems finding the updates
The updates cost me around $20 each which I thought was rather good

Regards Barry

[Philip Howells]

Barry - obviously I haven't found them yet either hence my remark that NB appeared to want me to pay full price again. I know what you call staircasing as anti-aliasing and strangely it's not one of the effects I noticed with Noise Reducer.

What I would say is that it's a filter which needs to applied very cautiously to work properly. A wedding client of two years ago who with the bride's father both work for Sony in Liverpool UK (games) both remarked favourably on the lack of noise in sequences filmed in very poor light - and they were both familiar with NB.

[Philip Howells]

I've just completed a test and the results are quite startling. On a clip of 41 seconds on the Edius timeline the original Noise reduction filter took almost 60 minutes to render. The same clip with the same settings on the GPU accelerated version of Noise Reducer took four minutes.

[NewBlue_MJ]

Barry - obviously I haven't found them yet either hence my remark that NB appeared to want me to pay full price again.

Phillip,

Were you able to locate the upgrade option on our site? If not, you can currently find it on this page: http://newbluefx.com/so/gpu/

On the right side of the screen is a box that says "Already have NewBlueFX?" Just enter the email address and password that you have registered with our website and you will be presented with a list of programs for which you can buy upgrades.

Now, of course this only works for people that have purchased directly from our website. If you purchased through another retailer, just let me know and I'm sure we can get it sorted out.

[John Hooper]

Hi Marcus,

I just tried the link you gave to Philip in the previous post.

In my case I put in my details and password and it lists Video Essentials, but down the bottom of that page it also says "coming soon to Edius".

Is that correct, or can I upgrade now?

Also how do I know which Video Essentials I am upgrading to, and would they still work if I upgrade to Edius 6.5 later?

[Philip Howells]

I did find the page from the Home page, eventually, thanks and, as my report of the test above shows, the difference is remarkable. Many thanks.

A couple of ancillary questions if I may, 1 why did you hide the access point for existing owners - clearly I wasn't the only one who found difficulty finding the point and was left with the clear impression that the only way to get the GPU accelerated version was to buy the whole lot again and I'd decided that was outside the budget; and 2 are you intending to offer the NB bundle included in the Edius purchase in GPU accelerated format?

[NewBlue_MJ]

Hi Marcus,

I just tried the link you gave to Philip in the previous post.

In my case I put in my details and password and it lists Video Essentials, but down the bottom of that page it also says "coming soon to Edius".

Is that correct, or can I upgrade now?

Also how do I know which Video Essentials I am upgrading to, and would they still work if I upgrade to Edius 6.5 later?

John,

If it just says "Video Essentials" on the list, then it's our original Video Essentials 1 collection. It would include the effects shown on this page: http://newbluefx.com/video-essentials.html

I apologize, the GPU versions do include Edius support. That "Coming soon to Edius" is out of date and shouldn't be there anymore. I'll get it removed.

As for Edius 6.5, no, the current files you download will not include Edius 6.5 support because the new plugin format will not be fully compatible with Edius 6. However, we do plan to support Edius 6.5, and anyone who purchases / upgrades to our GPU accelerated products will receive Edius 6.5 support as a free upgrade.

[John Hooper]

John,

If it just says "Video Essentials" on the list, then it's our original Video Essentials 1 collection. It would include the effects shown on this page: http://newbluefx.com/video-essentials.html

I apologize, the GPU versions do include Edius support. That "Coming soon to Edius" is out of date and shouldn't be there anymore. I'll get it removed.

As for Edius 6.5, no, the current files you download will not include Edius 6.5 support because the new plugin format will not be fully compatible with Edius 6. However, we do plan to support Edius 6.5, and anyone who purchases / upgrades to our GPU accelerated products will receive Edius 6.5 support as a free upgrade.

Marcus, thank you for answering my questions.

I am still not clear about the upgrade as the collection I appear to have includes all 20 effects in Essentials 1 and Essentials 3. (NewBlue Video Essentials for Edius)

So are you saying I can only upgrade Essentials 1?

[NewBlue_MJ]

Marcus, thank you for answering my questions.

I am still not clear about the upgrade as the collection I appear to have includes all 20 effects in Essentials 1 and Essentials 3. (NewBlue Video Essentials for Edius)

So are you saying I can only upgrade Essentials 1?

I'm sorry John, I apologize for any confusion. The "upgrade" options on our website will only list upgrades for products that you bought directly from our website.

As you rightly say, the "Video Essentials for Edius" collection is made up of our Video Essentials 1 and 3 collections. If you are interested in upgrading the entire "Video Essentials for Edius" collection then I can certainly help you with that. The upgrade price is $19.95 per collection, so to upgrade both VE1 and VE3 will be $39.90.

Unfortunately there's no automated way to do this (we don't have records of who has the "Video Essentials for Edius" bundle), but if you are interested just send me a PM and I'll get you the ordering info.

And if anyone else is interested in upgrading the "Video Essentials for Edius" bundle to the GPU versions, just send me a PM as well.

[Jerry]

The Video Essentials for Edius that you received with 6.0 includes Video Essentials 1 and 3. You have to upgrade each section separately.

[NewBlue_MJ]

I did find the page from the Home page, eventually, thanks and, as my report of the test above shows, the difference is remarkable. Many thanks.

A couple of ancillary questions if I may, 1 why did you hide the access point for existing owners - clearly I wasn't the only one who found difficulty finding the point and was left with the clear impression that the only way to get the GPU accelerated version was to buy the whole lot again and I'd decided that was outside the budget; and 2 are you intending to offer the NB bundle included in the Edius purchase in GPU accelerated format?

I apologize Philip, we're not trying to make it intentionally difficult to upgrade. We're in the middle of a website redesign, and with our Windows GPU versions being ready a few months ahead of the Mac versions it's made our website confusing to navigate. I do apologize for that. We'll get it straightened out soon, I promise! :)

As for a GPU version of the "Video Essentials for Edius" bundle, as I mentioned in the previous comment, this bundle is just made up of our VE1 and VE3 collections. Anyone who wants to upgrade to the GPU versions of those products can do so for a total cost of $39.90. Just send me a PM and I'll give you guys the purchasing info.