But remember, parsec on software decoding is not awesome. The time taken to complete conversion is measured in hours. Which is the best live streaming solution software encoder or hardware encoder. Broadcasters who use video cameras in their live streaming setup need either a hardware or software encoder for the job. Nov 27, 2019 software interacts with you, the hardware youre using, and with hardware that exists elsewhere. The live gamer hd for example definitely needs a higher bitrate with its h264 encoder, compared to x264 cpu encoding.
For example, the computer monitor used to view this text, or the mouse used to navigate a website are considered computer hardware. Encoding computer programs you run on a personal computer. I have a question when it comes to software vs hardware and what i should be using and overall how they work. For example, a photosharing software program on your pc or phone works with you and your hardware to take a photo and then communicates with servers and other devices on the internet to show that photo on your friends devices. I export from premiere where i have an option hardware acceleration cheked when exporting, but, when i encoding in ame, there write software encoding. Jul 23, 2018 one essential element for live streaming is functional live stream encoding software or hardware. Connect your usb camera for live switching and picture in picture layouts. Hardware vs software encoding card videohelp forum. Software optimization within skype to take advantage of the cameras onboard encoding. Oct 30, 2019 first up, software encoders are programs that run on a computing device. If you want better quality, go with software encoding.
Download article download enabling highperformance video encoding, decoding, and preprocessing pdf 619kb. If hardware decoding is possible, use hardware decoding and leave software decoding for anything that the hardware decoder doesnt support. Heres the answer, laid out simple, with examples how to build a pc. The main a6 processor is not using or spending cycles decoding video, it has essentially outsourced that job to a highly specialized worker. Software encoding is very much hardware dependent as well although hardware is allocated based on the computer or networks access to processors, memory, and network configuration. That being said, if your computer doesnt have a hardware decoder, you can try using software decoding. How to tell a hardware problem from a software problem. What is the difference between hardware decoding and. What is the difference between hardware encoding and software encoding. Picking the encoder that works best for you depends on a few factors. The software encoder x264 will use your cpu to encode video, while hardware encoders like nvenc will offload the encoding process to your gpu. A hardware encoder takes a feed from your camera and audio sources or your video mixer into a physical box. Software encodings greatest advantages over pure hardware encoders are its flexibility and quality. The encoder takes the images and sound and turns them into zeroes and ones, then sends them across the net.
I am writing a paper on the differences and similarities between hardware encoding and software encoding. Likewise, each company offers different services and advantages. How well does this feature work, and is it any faster than the existing implementation using intel quicksync. If youre wondering whats so special about hardware encoding, youre not alone. A video encoding device that offers onetouch, wireless live streaming. Software encoding s greatest advantages over pure hardware encoders are its flexibility and quality.
Ive heard that amd isnt great at encoding and so itd be better to use the software encoder, but ive also heard that some cpus cant handle. Hardware is a physical device, something that one is able to touch and see. Knowing how you want your final video project to look can be an important step in choosing the right encoder. These two types of encoders are having different functionality and use cases. Encoding software is a tool that transcodes video from one format to another. Some devices have additional limitations on hardware accelerated video encoding. Hardware vs software difference and comparison diffen. Nov 16, 2019 when it comes to encoders, there are two types. This buyers guide on encoder appliances will explore the tradeoffs between hardware and software encoding solutions, hopefully empowering readers to more easily determine which solution suits their specific needs. Closed caption and ads, to name only two, are key features to consider. Many schools see no reason to bring in a hardware encoder when theyve been managing just fine with custombuilt pcs and recording software like panopto.
High quality encoding, even up to 1080p resolution level. Lower resolutions will use normal software encoding. Nov 16, 20 in todays article i want to talk about the different encoding options that are currently available to you for streaming or recording video files. If you didnt know, when choosing h265 hevc one has the option of using software or hardware encoding. There are two types of encoders, hardware and software. Whats better, this 4k video processing software supports various types of hardware decoding. Hardware vs software encoding decoding comparison did anyone conduct a comparison between hardware and software in both decoding and encoding using amd and nvidia gpus. Even in hardware encoding, theres software in the firmware, so in a way its all software. There are basically two types of encoders named as software encoder and hardware encoder which results software encoding and hardware encoding respectively. An encoder allows you to capture video content coming from a source you previously selected your webcam, a camera or your phone.
The different encoders allow you to use different parts of your hardware system to do the hard work and encode your video file. How to select encoding software for live video streaming. How to select encoding software for live streaming and. The industrys first portable, wireless multicamera broadcasting platform. Software encoding x264 provides better quality for a given bitrate at the expense of making your cpu do all of the work. What does it do, and how does it impact my performance. I understand that hardware encoding is a thing, but what is the benefit of that over software encoding.
They get data from the capture cards, and they send it via the internet. The creative cow dvd authoring forum is for the discussion of issues related to dvd authoring, design and distribution. Software interacts with you, the hardware youre using, and with hardware that exists elsewhere. Hello all, im new to that kind of stuff and id like to know if you could give me a few tips. In 2012, the logitech c920 became the first webcam certified by skype to encode h. Aug 02, 2018 this post really wasnt intended to be a massive, allinclusive analysis of software vs hardware encoding it was just to demonstrate that there is a quality difference between the two.
Dedicated pieces of hardware that run encoding algorithms. This is the most efficient way to go in terms of processor resources and electrical consumption. Do you need software or hardware encoding for your live stream. Encoding is the process of compressing large video files for easier uploading to the internet. The software designed to utilize the hardware isnt doing it well or cant run as stably as it does when using only the cpu. Hardware give a lot lower cpu usage and as miamicanes point out software is a cpu hog. Hardware vs software encoding performance benchmarking. Jan 28, 2003 i am trying to learn about hardware vs. Enabling highperformance video encoding, decoding, and. What is hardware acceleration and why does it matter. What you want and what you need are two completely different things. Hardware gives you a dedicated device with a builtin feature set which may not tie up other equipment. Software versus hardware accelerated decoding parsec. I keep hearing different things about what to use, but im still not sure.
Ideally, it should be a powerful computer and for best performance, it should be a dedicated computer. Oct 04, 2012 but software based encoding has some drawbacks. Why hardware encoders are better for live streaming. Im doing my best to optimize my streaming performance from my pc to my steam link, and it doesnt help that the inhome streaming settings can be vague about what they do. On my desktop, the hardware encoding option is grayed out, forcing one to choose software. For hardware encoders it depends on their capabilities and generation. X264 does cpu or rtx gpu encoding work best for twitch. So i have an nvidia gtx 970 frozr and under obs i see the option to use nvnec to encode. It means there is a small chip on the motherboard specifically dedicated to decoding h264 video. What is the difference between hardware encoding and software. Dec 04, 2018 whats better, this 4k video processing software supports various types of hardware decoding. So when hardware encoding is the only performance factor was in these test it takes about 1.
One essential element for live streaming is functional live stream encoding software or hardware. Free watch live football stream to facebook stream to youtube stream to twitch live streaming hardware. What exactly is hardware encoding for the host pc or hardware decoding for the client for that matter. For example, this device could be your laptop or a desktop computer. The most important parameters of encoding are quality, flexibility, price, latency, and support. If the hardware sucks or youre not telling the controls to use adequate bitrate youll end up with mediocre results. This post addresses the benefits of using a hardware encoder vs. Elgato game capture hd and hardware accelerated decoding and. When debating which type of encoder to go with you should consider that while good, free encoding software exists, you still need a good computer to run it on.
However, youve encountered one of the problems with hardware encoding. You should keep this in mind when choosing gear, because the goal is usually to get the best possible option for the. Heres the answer, laid out simple, with examples how to. Software is a program, such as an operating system or a web browser, that is able to instruct a computers hardware to perform a specific. The key difference is that a hardware encoder is a piece of physical equipment youll need to hook up, while a software encoder is a program that runs on a computer.
Sometimes they connect straight to the camera and always to the internet. Create professional live streams from your hdmi camera, mixer, console, or other device with this compact hardware encoder. Which make it little bit confusing to select best one for you. If your cpu cant encode at good quality, get a ryzen 9 39003950 or the newest ryzen tr. But most importantly, it really brings the latency down on your games. Hardware decoding vs software decoding in 4k h264h265 video. This post really wasnt intended to be a massive, allinclusive analysis of software vs hardware encoding it was just to demonstrate that there is a quality difference between the two. Whether it is enough of one to matter is 100% up to you. Elgato game capture hd and hardware accelerated decoding. Dec 05, 2017 should you use gpu encoding or cpu encoding for game streaming and game recording. In this article we will give a detail introduction on this question. Software has always been able to adopt and update incredibly fast.
Picking the encoder that works best for you depends on a. Everyone is going to have a different opinion and priorities, and that is completely fine. This post is an indepth comparison of three hardware video encoders. Intel qsv cpu hardware decoding, nvidia cudanvdec and amd app gpu hardware decoding, which can jointly work together to tremendously improve 4k video decoding speed up to 58x faster. Software encoders are by far the most common type of encoder in use today. Theoretically, hardware encoding should be more efficient and be much faster than software. Hardware vs software encodingdecoding comparison did anyone conduct a comparison between hardware and software in both decoding and encoding using amd and nvidia gpus. Im trying to achieve the best quality but the more compressed as possible.
In most cases you will need a slightly higher bitrate to achieve the quality of a pure x264 cpu encoding. Should you use gpu encoding or cpu encoding for game streaming and game recording. Why ame doesnt use hardware acceleration if i have that posibilities. Little more advance knowledge about both the difference is quality of algorithms, and whether the algorithm has to work on a livelinear stream or not.