Video Quality Assessment

[Jan_C_]

Hi ,

We would like to do video quality assessments on encoded video clips using code sample sampe_encode of the media SDK (2016).

Our hw does not have the GPU so I am using the sw encoder. I was wondering if there is any difference with respect to video quality between the HW and SW encoder.

Thanks,

Jan 

[Harshdeep_B_Intel]

Hi Jan, 

I do not have your hardware information/encoder (codec?)/video clips you are using to test video quality etc. But, in general, yes, HW implementation (GPU) offers best performance/quality over SW implementation (CPU) and is optimized. New features are supported/implemented in HW vs SW. Is this sufficient information?

Thanks,

[Surbhi_M_Intel]

Jan, 

If there is any difference with respect to video quality between the HW and SW encoder. 
>>Yes there will be difference in the video quality since they are two different implementation. So you won't get the same output using software vs hardware path. The quality difference will vary on various factors like underlying hw, implementation used - d3d9 or d3d11, input. 

Hope this helps!

Thanks,
Surbhi
 

[Jan_C_]

Thank you for the feedback.

I have currently installed the intel Media SDK on a Cisco Anyres Live platform (which has 2 multicore Xeon E5-2600 processors, running under windows server R2012). This will not support the Intel media SDK HW encoder. So I am evaluating the SW decoder for the moment. From the replies above I understood that video quality is in general better with the HW encoder.

I am investigating the options to migrate to another Cisco system. I have a UCS M4308 chassis which is capable of hosting different types of processing cartridges. The chassis is currently equipped with a M2814 cartridge (The M2814 is a dual-socket server using Intel® Xeon® E5 2600 v3 CPUs, with up to 256 GB of DDR4 2133 MHz memory). But I guess this won't support the HW encoder as well. Correct ?

So I probably I need to get an alternate cartridge. I was going through some options and came across to Cisco UCS M1414 with Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 1281 V3 (8M Cache, 3.70 GHz, 82 W).

My question is : will the XEON E3 1281 V3 support the HW encoder in the media SDK ? Our goal is to design for high video quality.

Thanks,

Jan

PS : pg14 of link contains the HW description of the UCS M1414 http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-m-series-modular-servers/compute-cartridges-specsheet.pdf

[Surbhi_M_Intel]

Hi Jan, 

I am investigating the options to migrate to another Cisco system. I have a UCS M4308 chassis which is capable of hosting different types of processing cartridges. The chassis is currently equipped with a M2814 cartridge (The M2814 is a dual-socket server using Intel® Xeon® E5 2600 v3 CPUs, with up to 256 GB of DDR4 2133 MHz memory). But I guess this won't support the HW encoder as well. Correct ?
>>Yes, Xeon E5 server doesn't have a graphics card in it, hence it will not support hardware acceleration. but you can choose to add a PCI card to get hardware acceleration, available options are Artesyn SharpStreamer and Intel Visual Compute accelerator. 

Intel Xeon E3 processor have a graphics card in it but every Xeon processor doesn't support hardware acceleration, they are limited range of system which support hardware acceleration. Can you please confirm if your target OS is windows or Linux? I will check with hardware team and get back to you on the details of Cisco UCS M1414. 

Thanks,
Surbhi

[Jan_C_]

Hi Surbhi,

Thanks for checking with HW team on the UCS M1414 HW compatibility in the UCS M4308 platform. We finally target Linux as OS. We would prefer a solution with off the shelf Cisco HW without additional plug in cards if possible

Anaway, the Intel Visual Compute accelerator seems not to be an option as there is no PCIe expansion slot available in the UCS M4308. Moreover the PCIE expansion slot in the UCS C220 M4 does not allow double height.

The Artesyn Sharpstreamer card could be an option for the UCS C220 M4 as this one allows for single width, 3/4 length, full height. Any additional info on this card is welcome. But like mentioned above our preference would be to go with UCS M1414 without additional plug in card.

Thanks,

Jan

[Surbhi_M_Intel]

Hi Jan, 

So I checked with an expert on this and the link which you have pointed seems to be old and hasn't been updated. UCS M1414 offers more option than before, check this article- http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-m1414-compute-cartridge/index.html. 
Regarding using Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 1281 V3 (8M Cache, 3.70 GHz, 82 W), this doesn't have integrated graphics card in it which means you will not be able to use quick sync video(hardware acceleration). here is the description of this processor, whereas you can use USC M1414 with 

• Intel Xeon processor E3-1285L v4 3.4 GHz, 4 cores, 6 MB cache, 65W, this has Intel(R) Iris^TM Pro graphics P6300 
• Intel Xeon processor E3-1285 v4 3.5 GHz, 4 cores, 6 MB cache, 95W, this also has Intel(R) Iris^TM Pro graphics P6300 

Along with this, you will need C226 chipset to run Media Server Studio, which is targeted towards server segment and supports Linux OS. Please see system requirements in latest Release notes. 

Thanks,
Surbhi

[Jan_C_]

Hi Surbhi,

Great ! Seems M1414 has indeed extended portfolio with E3-1285. This must have been added recently.

I checked for the C226 and it is on board.

Thanks for your guidance !

Jan

[Surbhi_M_Intel]

No problem, closing this one. If you come across any issue, please start a new thread! 

-Surbhi