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Hardware Acceleration is a Must for Fast 4K Video Processing

Now you don't have to tolerate player crashing/stutter/freezing/lag, CPU overheat, etc.

It is not necessarily that GPU acceleration wins every bit over CPU acceleration in the battle of video encoding and decoding, since video processing speed is decided by many factors anyway, but hardware acceleration will boost video processing speed by 2-3 times faster or even higher generally.

GPU computing is propitious to the video processing with large data volume, or say intensive, highly parallel and simple controllable computing that will be executed in stages. Then what video types should specifically run for GPU-based hardware acceleration in the case that your operation system is configured with corresponding hardware (Intel®, AMD®, Nvidia® GPUs) for acceleration?

Above all, it must be 4K/2160p videos, the attention of which hits an all-time high, and the frequency being mentioned on the internet is even beyond 1080p video from time to time. When playing the large 4K H.264 or HEVC video files without hardware acceleration, your player has great chance to crash, stutter, lag (become slower) or freeze or has errors in reading, loading, or playing.

The same thing will happen on HD/UHD videos recorded from GoPro, drone, car DVR and monitor units which are also large in video size and high in definition, resolution, bitrate, code rate and frame rate. Such cutting-edge gadgets catch on with household users and entertainment enthusiasts, and in professional fields. However, what they collect are the raw video data signals, and mostly are a series of continuous and dynamic video signals. They will cause data explosion, posing a big pressure on CPU calculation accordingly, and even damage your CPU.

See how hardware acceleration benefits the following types of 4K videos, respectively:

What Make WinX Faster and Different? – Level-3 Hardware Acceleration!

So far, hardware acceleration has been utilized in many mainstream video converters. But 99% of them just end up with the regular routine of:
Source video -> HWDec -> YUV -> HWEnc -> target video

What VideoProc applies is the unique Level-3 Hardware Acceleration that is much more sophisticated and intelligent. Please see the workflow in the following diagram:

Simply put, the whole hardware-accelerated conversion process of VideoProc goes roughly like this: Source video -> HWDec -> YUV -> hardware processing -> HWEnc -> target video. Comparatively, it has one more step, i.e., video processing, which should not be overlooked: Not only rendering, resizing (compressing/upscaling/downscaling) as demonstrated are involved in, but also video editing like Deinterlacing, color conversion, inverse telecine, de-noising, scene detection, simple frame rate conversion, video configuration and so on are parts of it.

It is common knowledge that video conversion relates to lossy compression; if not, the output video file will be extremely large, and the processing will be at a snail's pace. Those who purport to provide zero quality loss in video compression are all drawing the longbow. But the hardware processing by WinX's converter software successfully minimizes loss in image quality, none but pixel-level differences which cannot be noticed by human eyes at all, thanks to not only the workflow illustrated, but also

1. Inter Prediction + Intra Prediction before video decoding: Inter Frame Prediction is possible to take advantage from temporal redundancy between adjacent frames to enable higher compression rates; Intra Frame Prediction exploits spatial redundancy of hue, brightness, etc, conducts Transform Coding of the predicted redundancy. It can remove neighboring spatial redundancy to get more efficient compression.

2. I-P-B Frames (Inter-frame Compression + Intra-frame Compression): Imagine Intra-frame compression compresses a picture directly. If two neighboring frames are similar, most of their data are the same, inter-frame compression only stores the different parts between frames, so large data volume is spared. VideoProc alternates one intra-frame compression and multiple inter-frame compressions and making good use of I-frames, P-frames and B-frames. This encoding method makes video resizing have large compression ratio and no distortion.

3. Entropy Encoding and Hybrid Encoding: During HWEnc process, Entropy Encoding, which can be considered as one kind of intra-frame encoding, is utilized to avoid losing any information according to entropy principle. Hybrid Encoding combines Transform Coding with Predictive Coding, compresses spatial redundancy using DCT and so on, and compresses temporal redundancy using Intra Prediction or Motion Compensated Prediction to achieve high compression ratio of motion pictures.

4. Sample Adaptive Offset in HEVC standard for 4K videos: It reduces distortion by classifying reconstructed images into categories after deblocking in video editing/processing, within in-loop of codec. Compression ratio can be improved and code rate can be reduced.

Hardware acceleration itself will not lower video quality while speeding up the video decoding and encoding process. And with the technologies above, video processing will keep quality loss at a minimum. The resizing step can reduce the output file size without causing problems like jerky videos, blurred screens, video audio asynchronization.

VideoProc defeats 99% video converters in the support for hardware acceleration. Let's see why:

Level-3 Hardware Acceleration Magnifies GoPro 4K Video Processing Efficiency

GoPro reveals a new way to record adventures. More than photos, GoPro action cameras unleash the power to shoot fantastic footage of normal, slow-motion, time-lapse in high definition. H.264 is utilized as primary format for 1080P/2.7K/4K digital recordings by former generations due to high data compression ratio and compatibilities. Till the release of HERO6, native support of HEVC (H.265) is available to further compress the size of 4K video at the same level of quality as well as producing high frame rate video clips with enhanced image smoothness. GoPro helps film stunning works of travel/sports, but how about its video playback and post production?

GoPro develops Quik for desktop to play, edit and share footages with ease. Simplified solutions are provided but troubles arrive as well.

1. Playback
Blames on Quik flood into communities because of choppy playback. Actually, the performance of Quik is related to hardware. Intel Quad Core i7 or later and Intel HD Graphics 5000 or later are recommended for 4K and HEVC playback.

Playback issue isn't eliminated even though there is a qualified computer for heavy workload and consumption of CPUs, especially when it runs multi-tasks. Quik allows working with graphics processor to use GPUs to offload multimedia missions from CPUs for getting better performance. But it's not enough. Viewing HEVC needs GPUs supporting HEVC encoding/decoding acceleration, not only with Quik but any other players for HEVC-compatible devices. Otherwise, people have to convert GoPro HEVC to H.264 to fix HEVC playback issue.

2. Editing
Lags definitely happen when editing GoPro videos with Quik on an incompetent computer. What's worse, not working problem appears. Hardware video decoding plays a very important role to well edit high definition videos with effects, music or other elements. That is to say, GPU including APIs for hardware accelerated video decoding is quite necessary.

3. Sharing
QuickStories, the mobile version of Quik which can automatically edit the footage and share on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook etc, builds a bridge between GoPro and phone. It brings conveniences while limitations. 4K videos will be automatically compressed to lower resolution (1080P @ 30/60 fps) when copying from GoPro to phone or uploading online. It may result in poor quality when viewing footage on phone or site. Quik gives less ability to maintain video quality after compression for sharing forcing users to copy footage to desktop and then upload to make the resolution keep original when viewing on site.

Quik defects urge users to search for a better program to process GoPro videos. VideoProc customizes the best solution for GoPro footages with fully support of 4K, 2.7K, 1080P, HEVC, H.264 etc. Transcoding and compression can be easily achieved with the most efficient performance. Level-3 hardware processing with integration of Intel QSV, NVIDIA NVENC and AMD boosts video processing to create the fastest speed while preserving nearly lossless quality.

Level-3 Hardware Acceleration Is Needed in Video Surveillance System

Surveillance is widely used in many areas today, covering traffic, public safety, home security, banking, smart home, military, supermarket, school, office building, factory, hospital, etc. The demand of surveillance products is increasing all the time. The trend of surveillance system can be concluded to 4 points: Networked, Intelligent, Popularized, and especially, Toward High Definition/4K. However, along with the improvement of video resolution in video surveillance system, surveillance also faces some technical obstacles now.

The first is bandwidth problem. The bitstream of 1080p/4K video is large and the bandwidth can influence the transmission of 1080p/4K videos. Improving the bandwidth is important. The second is storage issue. Since video surveillance has video playback function, it must store the recorded videos. 1080p/4K surveillance videos can occupy huge storage. For long time video storing, an efficient data storage method is needed.

But most of all is the video encoding/decoding problem. Decoding/encoding 1080p especially 4K UHD videos requires high performance of video decoder & encoder. The mainstream PCs spend a large amount of CPU power when using CPU software decoder to decode 1080p/4K surveillance videos. Choosing to improve the hardware equipment is an option, but it raises the cost of surveillance. Therefore, many producers begin to develop hardware accelerated encoder and decoder, so as to realize hardware accelerated video decoding, processing, encoding on PC.

High-definition video monitoring system with the hardware-acceleration codec can cause the great reduction in CPU utilization (at least reduce 50%) and significant enhance in speed of video decoding and encoding compared with the traditional software codec. According to a research, using software decoder can decode and play 1 channel live 1080p HD surveillance video at most, while applying H.264 hardware-accelerated codec on Intel Quick Sync Video technology can simultaneously decode and play 9 channels 1080p HD surveillance videos while delivering a fast speed.

Besides, 4K resolution and 4K UHD network surveillance cameras/video recorders are becoming more popular. Many surveillance cameras/recorders are equipped with revolutionary HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding/H.265) video compression codec, trying to keep small file size, low bit rate without losing the 4K video quality, and conserve bandwidth. Without hardware acceleration tech, streaming, decoding, playing, compressing or converting large 4K HEVC/H.265 monitoring videos can be extremely slow, let alone 4, 8, 16 channels 4K HEVC security & surveillance videos. (>> Professional 4K HEVC/H.265, 4K H.264, 1080p HD surveillance video compressor & converter with Intel QSV, NVIDIA CUDA/NVENC and AMD level-3 hardware acceleration: VideoProc)

To sum up, surveillance system is also catching up with the prevalence of 4K UHD resolution, high-end HEVC/H.265 codec, 4K HEVC cameras/drones/recorders, AI tech, etc. The research and application of hardware acceleration for 4K/1080p video surveillance system is really a great need.

Bottom Line: Hardware acceleration computing goes mainstream and is wrapped in popular video applications with the purpose of optimizing implementations of multimedia tasks. GPU-accelerated computing facilitates effective performance on 4K HEVC/H.264/VP9 video processing. Hardware acceleration is seemingly a complicated technology for beginners but VideoProc makes everything easy.

VideoProc is an already hardware accelerated video transcoder. It makes full use of GPUs including Intel QSV, NVIDIA NVENC, AMD VCE to gather speed of HEVC/H.264/VP9 encoding, decoding and processing. It can automatically detect GPUs on computer and invoke hardware acceleration for transcoding. The intensive operation of 4K videos from HD camcorders, GoPro, drones, video surveillance system or web can be proficiently and fast completed. With top-level hardware acceleration support, it delivers not only 16x transcoding speed, but also perfect quality which is almost the same as raw 4K file. It perfectly strikes a balance among speed, quality and CPU cost.

How does VideoProc bring hardware acceleration into effect to handle 4K videos?

In consideration of compatibility and system requirements, it is highly suggested to convert 4K HEVC file to H.264 for smooth playback and editing. (In turn, HEVC has higher compression ratio which can offer smaller size at the same level of quality of H.264. If competent hardware is equipped, to convert 4K H.264 to HEVC can shrink video size and save more space on devices.)

VideoProc is an all-in-one video converter/compressor, video editor, video downloader, video recorder, and DVD converter for both Windows (10) and Mac. Learn how to use it to convert and compress 4K video below.

1. Free download, install and launch this hardware-accelerated 4K video transcoder and click "Video" button on the main UI, then click "+Video" on the tool bar.

2. Click "Target Format" button, Click: General Profiles > MP4 Video (Codec: H264 + AAC) > OK.

3. Click "Codec Option" icon to access video/audio settings panel. Through adjusting parameters, the 4K footage can be compressed to a smaller size for online sharing.
• Bit rate is the most important factor affecting video size. To downsize a video, lower bit rate is an available way. 20% off is preferred because dramatically reduction will damage definition. It's better to keep frame rate and resolution of original 4K video for the best visual effect on a 4K monitor.
• Frame rate and resolution can affect video size when the footage features variable bit rate. The higher frame rate/resolution the video has, the bigger size it will be. It is advisable to decrease frame rate from 60fps to 30fps, 30fps to 24fps or resolution from 4K to 1920x1080P, 4K to 1280x720P for getting smaller size but minimum quality loss.
Test Result: 30fps to 24 fps + 4K to 1080P -> 40% off original size

4. Edit video. In the Edit column, you can cut, crop, rotate, flip video, add effects/watermark to video with ease. For instance, Cut option can help set start/end time to cut unwanted parts off the clip and reduce video file size.
Besides, you can click "ToolBox" at the bottom for more video edit fucntions like: Merge, Deshake, Denoise, Trim, Split, Mirror video, convert video to GIF, capture video snapshots, convert 3D video to 2D, correct fisheye lens distortion, etc.

5. Enable NVIDIA/Intel/AMD hardware acceleration engine and this will quicken the 4K video conversion/compression/resizing speed at most.
6. Click "Browse" to define a new folder to save resulting file.
7. Click "RUN" to start converting and compressing 4K HEVC video with VideoProc.
(>> Detailed User Guide: How to Use VideoProc)