[Richard Freemantle]

Hi Joshua,

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

And thanks for the information regarding what you would like to see & naturally we would like to see these things too. However, as a customer I would really like to know what we will see & when? (ie. concrete information!), as I must make financial decisions based upon it!

Who actually has the plans? (/are there any?)

I whole-heartedly agree with Jack & a media Express light version is a requirement!

To this end, could I suggest an interface as Jack has described in his previous (linked to) post & to minimise your development time; The simplest preview solution would be to pipe the h264 stream across the internal network via UDP, so that we could use the very efficient VCL player to preview it (if required). Hence this light version would require no preview at all!

As a software developer, the solutions I have presented are the simplest (ie. quickest to implement) I could think of. Please…, please! talk to the developers, or get them to talk to us directly so we can discuss & explore this!

Without any real communication, we are left asking questions such as: Am I wasting my time with BMD Products?…Is it worth the risk?… Should I return it?…

Please note, I originally raised this issue over 4 months ago! (see https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/124/877024 & again 3 weeks later https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/124/877307). I believe I & others have been extremely patient regarding what I feel is an easily fixable yet critical flaw in the product we have purchased.

Very much, looking forward to hearing from you

Thanks,

Richard Freemantle

[Richard Freemantle]

Hi Joshua,

Hopefully, things have quietened down for you guys & you or a colleague will have opportunity to respond to my queries (I assume everyone at BMD have been quite busy recently).

I also share in Scotts frustrations. After receiving no official response on this forum (which was surprising given the size of the threads) I contacted support, although they did get back to me fairly promptly they couldnt tell me anything remotely useful, as it seems communication between support and the developers is non-existent. The closest thing to progress was an apparent mentioning of my questions / ideas for solutions at an event (I think it was another product launch)

I bought the H.264 Pro recorder for its hardware encoding, naturally assuming this would equate to low cpu overhead.
But to my horror, to actually record with it uses ~80-90% of my quad core CPU just to view the video stream (VLC uses ~30%).

So for my purposes I get better performance using FREE screen recording software!!!

The solutions I have already suggested are as follows;

Media Express – Possible alternate preview modes (in order of increasing cpu usage)

1: Off = Dont decode the stream at all
2: Minimum = Just check stream integrity ie. gop/frame headers ok (pos unrequired)
2: Reduced = Only decode I-Frames in low priority background thread (allowing skipping frames if neccessary)
3: Full

The thinking being that if CPU use is an issue, a user could start at full (or reduced) preview mode & then drop to a lower level once they are sure everything is connected ok etc…

If not the above, could we not at least have a [REC]/[STOP] style super basic interface with no preview!
nb. the streaming overhead of the encoded stream is only ~4%

And why is there a Win 64-bit requirement when the software /drivers are 32-bit? I can only assume this relates to cpu usage issue!
I only ask because I know it can work in 32-bit (earlier builds did) & its annoying having to dual doot.

Please respond

[Richard Freemantle]

As the input preview seems to be a reasonably hot topic just thought I’d pitch some ideas.

Possible alternate preview modes:

1: Off = Dont decode the stream at all
2: Minimum = Just check stream integrity ie. gop/frame headers ok (pos unrequired)
2: Reduced = Only decode I-Frames in low priority background thread (allowing skipping frames if neccessary)
3: Full

The thinking being that if CPU use is an issue, a user could start at full (or reduced) preview mode & then drop to a lower level once they are sure everything is connected ok etc…

This would certainly make me a happier customer anyway!

[Richard Freemantle]

Hi Kristian,

Could you please respond to my related questions in this thread from 3 weeks ago?

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/124/877024

A brief summary:

1920×1080 @60hz progressive doesnt work (should do according to specs)

Require an option to turn Video preview Off, as the current CPU use makes the hardware based encoding of the Pro-Recorder far less efficient than currently free screen recording software!
ie. Currently H.264 Pro-Recorder = $500 paperweight!

nb. the streaming server is using about 4% cpu (good). However with preview its 100% & cant keep up at all (bad).

Related specifically to this thread, I also start getting glitches after ~10 secs @ 1080PsF29.97.

Look forward to your response,
Thanks

[Richard Freemantle]

Thanks for the tip re the graphics card. Im currently on an NVidia 9800gtx+, so maybe a newer card would help.
OTOH Hopefully someone from BMD will actually read & respond to my queries before Im forced to upgrade my graphics card in the hope of turning my H.264 Pro-Recorder into something more than an expensive paperweight!

Rather annoyingly, in my usage case I get better performance using free screen recording software!

[Richard Freemantle]

Hi Jack,

I read that post but was still surprised at the preview cpu overhead in Media Express (2.4). Im not on the newest hardware (quadcore intel core2 9450 @2.66ghz) but vlc can playback the stream using ~23% cpu usage, whearas the Media Express preview couldnt keep up & cpu was at 96%

Anyway, fingers crossed the ‘preview off’ feature is implemented in the new version (or will be). It certainly would make the Pro Recorder useful in lots of scenarios!

Rich