MediaCoder is finally able to encode with NVENC, NVIDIA’s hardware SIP core that performs H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC video encoding. NVENC SDK 5.0.1 is used, so NVIDIA GPU driver 347.09 or above is required. The latest version of SDK has added support for HEVC (H.265) encoding on GM20x GPUs (GTX980 and future Quadro/Tesla/GRID platforms based on GM20x GPUs). Following is the description of NVENC from NVIDIA’s official website.
The NVIDIA Encoder (NVENC) API enables software developers to access the high-performance hardware H.264 and HEVC (H.265) video encoder in Kepler and Maxwell class NVIDIA GPUs (See list of supported GPUs below).NVENC provides high-quality video encoding that is faster and more power efficient in comparison to equivalent CUDA-based or CPU-based encoders. By using dedicated hardware for the video encoding task, the GPU CUDA cores and/or the CPU are available for other compute-intensive tasks. NVENC on GeForce hardware can support a maximum of 2 concurrent streams per system. NVENC for GRID, Tesla and certain Quadro GPUs (see below) can support as many streams as possible up to maximum NVENC encoder rate limit and available video memory.
To test NVENC with MediaCoder, please install the latest MediaCoder Full Edition and install the following update.
Once the update installed, NVENC will appear in the video encoder list. Disable video encoder auto selection and choose NVENC and MediaCoder will encode with NVENC. The supported video format is H.264 and H.265 (if you have a GeForce series 9 card). Currently the configuration tab for NVENC is not yet done as the support for NVENC is just initial and is still being worked on. To adjust its parameters, click the “Encoder” button. More parameters will be adjustable in future updates. Have fun with the cutting-edge breezing fast hardware encoding with 10-year old MediaCoder.
SUPPORTED NVIDIA GPUS FOR NVENC
- NVIDIA Quadro K4000 and above – Desktop Workstation
- NVIDIA Quadro K2000M and above – Mobile Workstation
- NVIDIA Tesla K10 and above – High Performance Computing
- NVIDIA GRID – Virtual Desktops & Applications
- NVIDIA GeForce – and all others not in the list above (Kepler and Maxwell GPUs) – Desktop and Mobile Computers – limited to 2 encode sessions per system