#Wirecast reviews archive#
#Wirecast reviews full#
#Wirecast reviews software#
#Wirecast reviews Offline#

As you can see in the rate distortion curve shown in Figure 4, below (higher is better), the NVIDIA codec edged the Intel Quick Sync codec and the x264 codec using the medium preset, while x264 configured to the often-used veryfast preset trailed considerably.

#Wirecast reviews Offline#

This was a live-transcoding use case (as opposed to offline video-on-demand encoding), so the results are very applicable. How does the NVIDIA and Intel Quick Sync output quality compare to x264? At Streaming Media West in 2019, I compared NVIDIA and Quick Sync to x264 quality (but not MainConcept). Note that the NVIDIA codec wasnвЂ™t used in the default encoding preset, so youвЂ™ll have to choose an NVIDIA preset to activate hardware-based transcoding. On the 420, there are three H.264 codecs to choose from: one from MainConcept, one thatвЂ™s the open-source x264 codec, and the hardwareaccelerated NVIDIA codec. This screen offers multiple presets that list the codec used in the preset name.

#Wirecast reviews archive#

Operationally, you choose the hardware encoder in WirecastвЂ™s Output Setting screen, where you configure your encodings for your live-streaming service provider or archive recording.

The other two units have one Quick Sync integrated hardware encoder that uses the Intel graphics chip. Specifically, the 420 has four NVIDIA hardware encoders using the GPUs on the graphics card to convert to H.264 output for storage or transmission to a live-streaming serviceВ provider, preserving cycles for the system Xeon CPU. Although I was testing the 420, the other two systems share the same CPU, RAM configuration, and operating system, so performance should be similar except when outputting multiple file outputs using hardware-based encoding.

#Wirecast reviews software#

Though there is no magic number, once CPU utilization gets beyond 60%вЂ“80% or so, you start to worry about dropped frames, interruptions, and outright software failures. To test the system, I created multiple projects with multiple outputs and measured CPU utilization during these operations. The 420 back panel shows the extensive I/O. The DVI and VGA DisplayPorts marked вЂњNot usedвЂќ in Figure 3 are the two outputs for the 310 and 320, and the pink-and-green Line Out and Mic In are available on all three units, complemented by the same ports on the front of the unit.ДЇigure 3. You see the four HD-SDI inputs on the right, the single HDI input/outputВ up top, and the two XLR/TRS combo jacks that are available on all three units. As you can see, the four DisplayPorts on the 420 are, in fact, DisplayPort outputs, and Telestream includes a single DisplayPort to DVI connector in the box to get you up and running. The connectors on the 420 are shown in Figure 3 (below). The 420 also has one HD-SDI program out for confidence monitoring or to send to an external encoder, a workflow that some live-event producers favor over encoding in their mixer. As youвЂ™ll see, these really come in handy when outputting multiple streams of H.264-encoded output. The 420 I tested has the NVIDIA Quadro P220 graphics card, which includes four DisplayPort outputs and the four integrated hardware encoders referred to in Figure 2.

#Wirecast reviews full#

Click the image to see it at full size.ДЄll three models come in a rackmountable 2RU chassis that can fit in a standard 19' rackmount or run as a desktop unit with rubber feet included. HereвЂ™s how the systems differ in terms of I/O. All systems come with Wirecast Pro, and this itself comes with NewBlue Titler Live, which supplies animated 3D titles, scoreboards, and other graphics and Facebook comments, curation, and display.ДЇigure 2. Buy the 310 for four HDMI inputs the Gear 320 for four HD-SDI inputs and the 420 for five HD-SDI inputs, baseband SDI output, and four integrated hardware encoders. According to the Intel product page, the Intel Xeon E-2176G processor has six 3.70 GHz CPUs and hyperthreading for 12 logical cores.ДЇigure 2 (below) shows how the configurations differ in graphics and I/O.

Gear comes in three basic configurations, though you can customize them as you like. My recent tests of a Wirecast Gear 420 system ( Figure 1, below) show that it quite aptly meets this definition. TelestreamвЂ™s Wirecast Gear systems are for live-event producers who are sold on Wirecast and want a stable, highperformance system to run it on.