[done] HD Resolutions and a few extras...

[barron]

My primary use of this software would be for live mixing computer based presentation visuals, HD or SD ENG video of said presenter(s), and perhaps to play back an intro video or two. When capturing any text based apps, being able to record at or near native resolution of the display is vital to maintain the detail and readability. (we framegrab through epiphan vga2usb LR's)

The way I would use this would be to define a 1280X720 program size. I would capture the presentation computer at 1024X768 from my vga2usb. From there I would scale it back to 960X720 and push that video to a side of the screen. Then I could do a PiP in an opposite top corner (from cam) to minimize overlap between images. My final goal would be to do text overlays in the blank space beneath the PiP.

I know that this takes a ton of CPU power, but using "Studio" version 0.42 trial at highest supported resolution, I've been able to use this setup of inputs and encode at 1280x960 (upscaling) into Expression Encoder 2 (advanced VC1 Profile 5000kbps for archive) while hitting an average 70% load across my Q6600 @ 3.2ghz. I know this will greatly increase with higher resolution inside vidblaster, but thats part of the reason why I'm putting together my first I7 rig...

If you follow this link there is a streaming video that around the 3:00 mark demonstrates the whole idea as done in post. Just before that there are some examples of internet browsers etc. You will see they are unreadable at that resolution. If you take the video fullscreen (still fighting the player to maintain aspect ratio), it will become readable as the actual res of that video is 1280X720. Yes that is large, and yes the video clocks in at a "whopping" 10.5MB for 5 minutes of video thanks to low movement and H.264!
http://www.recordwithbarron.com/businesses/presentationrecording/demo

So, to sum up my requests...

1)Resolution up to 1280X720 (includes resolution reported as a virtual device)

2)Ability to resize and position video streams

3)Text overlays with positioning within frame

4)Opacity and position of graphics overlays (sponsor watermarks etc.)

These features would make this a dream product as it would save me hours of transfering, editing, and rendering by working in real time.

Keep up the incredible work!

[Mike]

Hi Barron,

Thank you for your nice words, and welcome to the forum. It's easier for everyone if there is one thread per feature request, so I will limit myself to your HD request here.

Although VidBlaster is fully prepared to support HD, I have not enabled this as I lack the hardware to properly test this and suspect current (reasonably priced) PCs are not up to the task. Both the demand on the CPU and the HDD is huge, as you already expected. Releasing this resolution now would give a ton of support request from users wondering why their PC just sits their doing one frame per second. I'm therefore suggesting that when you or anyone else has build an HD studio, and invested in a machine (possibly) fast enough (let's say an i7 965), to say so here and we'll run some tests together. I'm already looking forward to it :)

Mike

[barron]

I'd be more than happy to run some tests for you. I just finished building and this machine has a ridiculous amount of power. Running a 1280X1024 framegrab into expression encoder uses 15% of the CPU and I haven't even thought about OC'ing yet.

If you would like some feedback on the feasability of running HD mixing, feel free to contact me at my registered email.

Thanks.

[Mike]

If you're quick I can add HD to the next release, but I first want to establish a reference. Can you do a full PAL resolution demo with some cameras, effects and one or two overlays and store it online somewhere? Don't forget to note down hardware used and CPU usage. Try something you can easily reproduce so we can compare results.

[barron]

Well, today is stress test the new machine day here so a test was definately in order!

System Specs:

I7 920 @ Stock
3GB 1366 DRAM
DFI LanPary X58 Board (only micro-atx for I7)
Geforce 6600 256mb (i had it laying around and this rig aint for gaming)

This system has power, but cost me about $750 to build.

http://www.burnlabs.com/Vidblaster Test.wmv

The camera is a Canon XH A1 at 16:9 SD @30fps plugged in 1394. I ran audio from my lav mic direct into the board, hence the audio sync issue and why audio is only on the left. I also put a screen cap on cpu usage in the video for ya!

[Mike]

Thanks, looks good. Pitty you could not set audio delay to compensate for the huge delay firewire causes. Do you have an audio delayer, or a faster way to input video using a frame grabber? I'd like to know if sync remains in place and it's hard to tell like this. Also there are a few small hickups in the audio at the start of the recording, any idea where those came from?
Considering 720p has twice as much pixels I fear you will run out of air with this setup, unless as you say there's a lot of overhead from outside VB. We'll see, I will add 720p.

One question: how exactly do you record? EE2 intercepts the stream, do you take video out from a 2nd monitor or did you use the recorderand encode afterwards?

[barron]

The a/v sync issue happened becase I didn't have the appropriate adapter to feed my mic into the camera first and then into the computer.

I was using the streaming module to feed the video directly into Expression Encoder 2 which was doing the encoding that you watched in real time behind vidblaster. The encoder was grabbing the audio stream direct from the wireless reciever (just the built in sound on the board) which is why the delay was not compensated for. Since then, I've verified that by sending the audio into the camera and then out, the sync is spot on. I do see myself picking up an Intensity Pro at some point for the camera and running in using component and analog audio which should help with sync as well.

So to recap, the usage statistics that you see in the video is with vidblaster working while encoding the stream into VLC1 Advanced along with the CPU hits from using a VGA2USB and DV video. Truthfully, at present I don't see much reason for me to do a HD capture from the camera as it will always be the smaller of the 2 images that I need to mix. In my application HD is only necessary for the computer visuals.

I am also curious how many threads vidblaster will currently utilize? In some reading yesterday I found that any encoder by Microsoft seems to only do 4. (rumor says it will be 8 in Win7) This seems to be part of the reason why 2 cores of the chip seem to run 15% behind as the the I7 can handle 8 threads.

I can't wait to really put the screws to this rig!

[Mike]

Recording using the Streamer module, interesting..

I added 1280 * 720 (untested) to v0.43 so appreciate feedback good or bad. Obviously a demo and some CPU usage values would also be much appreciated.

[LennyBoy]

I tryed to test out the new beta version of Vidblaster with an Intesity card. I cannot make the picture show op.

I think its related to not being able to tell the card what resolution to use.

[barron]

I just grabbed a copy of the new beta.

I won't have a chance to kick out a video until tomorrow night. However, I was able to fire it up real quick. As you said the streamer seems to be broken right now so I couldn't fire up expression encoder like in the previous video, but I can tell you that frame grabbing a desktop through my vga2usb at 1280x720 with a DV cam overlayed sees 1 core at 50%, another at 40%, 3rd at 10%, and the 4th doing nothing??! I can only explain this by the number of threads vidblaster is using.

In order to provide a direct comparison, I would need to have the streamer functioning again, but right now I think it's looking like any I7 CPU is definately the way to go. (Once that streamer is fixed I may also repeat the test on my Core 2 Quad for comparison.)

[Mike]

Thanks Barron. The Streamer can apparently be made to work by loading the Ustream profile, or so I heard. Haven't had time to look at it but it's something in the profile. When it works, it keeps on working.
As for thread use, this may be related to the streamer not working. Will have to check that later when the problem's fixed.

PS: for Intensity related comments, please use this (http://vidblaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=200.0)thread.