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Speeding Premiere Pro CS4's H.264 Encoding with NVIDIA QuadroFX and Elemental Accelerator
Offloading video encoding tasks to the host GPUHigh definition video editing and HD video encoding are two of the hardware intensive tasks that can be done with a computer. It takes a lot of power to complete these types of jobs, oftentimes rendering your computer limited in functionality while it encodes video. NVIDIA's Quadro line of graphics cards can help to speed up H.264/AVC encoding in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 with an assist from Elemental Technologies' Elemental Accelerator.
The combo offloads HD video encoding from the host system's CPU to the Quadro's CUDA parallel processors, giving the Quadro FX graphics cards an added encoding boost. The plug-in works with NVIDIA's family of Quadro FX graphics cards (QuadroFX 1800, QuadroFX 3800, QuadroFX 4800 (Windows and Mac), QuadroFX 5800, and Quadro FX 2700M). While the solution currently only works with a limited number of encoding presets, H.264/AVC and MPEG-2 specifically, the combo does accelerate the encoding process by offloading the task to the Quadro's GPUs. And this is a big positive especially for those who are encoding large jobs on a daily basis.
Testing
To test the NVIDIA Quadro/Elemental Accelerator 2.1 combo, a Quadro 1800 was installed in an HP Z400 workstation, and a Quadro 4800 was installed in a Lenovo D20 ThinkStation workstation. The results are by no means competitive, but rather are a showcase of what each card with the plug-in outputs. The test clip comprised a single, 21 second 1920x1080 .mts video file with two simple dissolves on the Premiere Pro CS4 timeline. Longer files were not tested.
| HP Z400 with Intel XEON W3550 3.06GHz, 6GB RAM, Windows Vista 64-bitQuadro 1800 | Time to encode in seconds |
| H.264 HDTV 1080p 23.97 high quality | 64 |
| Elemental H.264 HDTV 1080p 23.97 high quality | 48 |
| H.264 preset HDTV 720p 23.976 High Quality | 44 |
| Elemental HDTV 720p 23.976 High Quality | 27 |
| H.264 Blu Ray 1440x1080i 25 high quality | 60 |
| Elemental H.264 Blu Ray 1440x1080i 25 high quality | 48 |
| MPEG 2 1440x1080i 25 high quality | 40 |
| Elemental MPEG 2 1440x1080i 25 high quality | 29 |
| MPEG-2 DVD Widescreen high quality | 34 |
| Elemental MPEG-2 DVD High Quality | 13 |
| MPEG-2 Blu Ray 1440 x 1080i Elemental MPEG-2 Blu Ray 1440 x 1080i | 40 29 |
| Lenovo Intel XEON E5540 2.53GHz, 12GB RAM Windows 7 64-bit Quadro 4800 | Time to encode in seconds |
| H.264 format Preset: HDTV 1080p 23.97 high quality | 43 |
| Elemental H.264 HDTV 1080p 23.97 high quality | 33 |
| H.264 HDTV 720p 23.976 High Quality | 45 |
| Elemental H.264 HDTV 720p 23.976 High Quality | 16 |
| H.264 Blu Ray 1440x1080i 25 high quality | 51 |
| Elemental H.264 blu ray 1440x1080i 25 high quality | 25 |
| MPEG 2 1440x1080i 25 high quality | 46 |
| Elemental MPEG 2 1440x1080i 25 high quality | 18 |
| MPEG 2 DVD NTSC High Quality | 26 |
| Elemental MPEG-2 DVD High Quality | 13 |
| MPEG-2 Blu Ray 1440 x 1080i | 46 |
| Elemental MPEG-2 Blu Ray 1440 x 1080i | 18 |
With the Quadro 4800, performance is significantly faster than that of the Quadro 1800, but the pricing on the Quadro 4800, at around $1500 is nearly three times the price of the Quadro FX 1800 ($450). If your time is money, it is obvious that you will benefit greatly from the Quadro FX 4800 and a system that supports it. If slightly slower times are sufficient, but you still want the accelerated encoding that the Elemental Accelerator plug-in offers in concert with the Quadro FX 1800, then the 1800 can provide faster than "stock" times of the host PC. The Elemental Accelerator is always in a constant state of revision, and a 2.2 version is also available at press time. If you are doing a lot of H.264/AVC and MPEG-2 encoding jobs, one of these solutions, depending on budget, can offer significant benefits in time savings.
QuadroFX 1800 specs
GPU Specs: CUDA Cores 64
GPU Memory Specs:
Memory Size Total 768 MB GDDR3
Memory Interface 192-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 38.4
Display Support:
Dual Link DVI-I 1
DisplayPort 2
# of Digital Outputs 3
( 2 out of 3 active at a time )
# of Analog Outputs 1
Maximum Display Resolution Digital @ 60Hz 2560x1600
Feature Support:
Shader Model 4.0
OpenGL 3.0
Microsoft DirectX 10
NVIDIA CUDA Architecture
NVIEW Display Management Software
FSAA (maximum) 32x
Thermal and Power Specs:
EnergyStar Enabling Yes
Maximum Power Consumption 59 W
QuadroFX 4800 Specs
GPU Specs: CUDA Cores 192
GPU Memory Specs:
Memory Size Total 1.5 GB
Memory Interface 384-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 76.8
Display Support:
Dual Link DVI-I 1
DisplayPort 2
# of Digital Outputs 3 (2 out of 3 active at a time)
# of Analog Outputs 1
Stereo (3-pin Mini-DIN) 1
Maximum Display Resolution Digital @ 60Hz 2560x1600
Feature Support:
Shader Model 4.0
OpenGL 3.1
Microsoft DirectX 10
3D Vision
NVIDIA SLI Multi OS Support
NVIDIA CUDA Architecture
SDI Option
SLI Frame Rendering Support
Genlock/Framelock
FSAA (maximum) 32x
Number of Slots 2
Thermal and Power Specs:
EnergyStar Enabling Yes
Maximum Power Consumption 150W
www.nvidia.com
http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/
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John Virata is senior editor of Digital Media Online. You can email him at jvirata@digitalmedianet.com
Related Keywords:h.264 encoding, video editing workflow, elemental accelerator results, GPU encoding
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