Intel Quick Sync Video is Intel 's brand for its dedicated video encoding and decoding hardware core . Quick Sync was introduced with the Sandy Bridge CPU microarchitecture on 9 January 2011 and has been found on the die of Intel CPUs ever since.
26-476: The name "Quick Sync" refers to the use case of quickly transcoding ("converting") a video from, for example, a DVD or Blu-ray Disc to a format appropriate to, for example, a smartphone , in situations where speed is more important than the best possible quality. Unlike video encoding on a CPU or a general-purpose GPU , Quick Sync is a dedicated hardware core on the processor die . This allows for much more power-efficient video processing. Quick Sync Video
52-586: A lossless format (such as FLAC , ALAC , TTA, WavPack , and others) that take around half the storage space needed when compared to original uncompressed PCM formats (such as WAV , and AIFF ), as lossless formats usually have the added benefit of having meta data options, which are either completely missing or very limited in PCM formats. These lossless formats can be transcoded to PCM formats or transcoded directly from one lossless format to another lossless format, without any loss in quality. They can be transcoded into
78-450: A dedicated GPU) do not contain the hardware core to support Quick Sync. Transcoding Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital conversion of one encoding to another, such as for video data files, audio files (e.g., MP3 , WAV ), or character encoding (e.g., UTF-8 , ISO/IEC 8859 ). This is usually done in cases where a target device (or workflow ) does not support the format or has limited storage capacity that mandates
104-423: A loss of quality. For video editing , (for video converting), images are normally compressed directly during the recording process due to the huge file sizes that would be created if they were not, and because the huge storage demands being too cumbersome for the user otherwise. However, the amount of compression used at the recording stage can be highly variable, and is dependent on a number of factors, including
130-450: A lossy format introduces varying degrees of generation loss , while the transcoding from lossy to lossless or uncompressed is technically a lossless conversion because no information is lost; however, when the conversion is irreversible, it is then more correctly known as destructive . Transcoding is a two-step process in which the original data is decoded to an intermediate uncompressed format (e.g., PCM for audio; YUV for video), which
156-500: A lossy format, but these copies will then not be able to be transcoded into another format of any kind (PCM, lossless, or lossy) without a subsequent loss of quality. For image editing users are advised to capture or save images in a raw or uncompressed format, and then edit a copy of that master version, only converting to lossy formats if smaller file sized images are needed for final distribution. As with audio, transcoding from lossy format to another format of any type will result in
182-427: A reduced file size, or to convert incompatible or obsolete data to a better-supported or modern format. In the analog video world, transcoding can be performed just while files are being searched, as well as for presentation. For example, Cineon and DPX files have been widely used as a common format for digital cinema , but the data size of a two-hour movie is about 8 terabytes (TB). That large size can increase
208-515: A video content entering in Adobe CC2018. The following table shows fixed-function encode/decode support for various Intel platforms. Support for hybrid and/or partial decode/encode are not detailed. (High 10 not supported) (High 10 not supported) (High 10 not supported) (Encode at 4:2:0 only) (Haswell Refresh to Skylake) Certain low-end and high-end parts (including multi-socket Xeons and some Extreme Edition CPUs expected to be used with
234-666: Is available on Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and Core i9 processors starting with Sandy Bridge, and Celeron & Pentium processors starting with Haswell. Like most desktop hardware-accelerated encoders, Quick Sync has been praised for its speed. The eighth annual MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video codecs comparison showed that Quick Sync was comparable to x264 superfast preset in terms of speed, compression ratio and quality ( SSIM ); tests were performed on an Intel Core i7 -3770 ( Ivy Bridge ) processor. However, Quick Sync could not be configured to spend more time to achieve higher quality, whereas x264 improved significantly when allowed to use more time using
260-405: Is created. When sending the image to another phone, this high resolution image might be transcoded to a lower resolution image with fewer colors in order to better fit the target device's screen size and color limitations. This size and color reduction improves the user experience on the target device, and is sometimes the only way for content to be sent between different mobile devices. Transcoding
286-413: Is decreased quality. Compression artifacts are cumulative, so transcoding causes a progressive loss of quality with each successive generation, known as digital generation loss . For this reason, transcoding (in lossy formats) is generally discouraged unless unavoidable. For users wanting to be able to re-encode audio into any format, and for digital audio editing , it is best to retain a master copy in
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#1732872995243312-493: Is extensively used by home theatre PC software to reduce the usage of disk space by video files. The most common operation in this application is the transcoding of MPEG-2 files to the MPEG-4 or H.264 format. Real-time transcoding in a many-to-many way (any input format to any output format) is becoming a necessity to provide true search capability for any multimedia content on any mobile device, with over 500 million videos on
338-404: Is for the original recording to be deemed the master copy, and for desired subsequent transcoded versions, which will often be in a different format and smaller file size, to be transcoded only from that master copy. Although transcoding can be found in many areas of content adaptation, it is commonly used in the area of mobile phone content adaptation. In this case, transcoding is a must, due to
364-468: Is then encoded into the target format. One may also re-encode data in the same format, for a number of reasons: One can also use formats with bitrate peeling , that allow one to easily lower the bitrate without re-encoding, but quality is often lower than a re-encode. For example, in Vorbis bitrate peeling as of 2008, the quality is inferior to re-encoding. The key drawback of transcoding in lossy formats
390-480: Is widely available. Examples of such software with Quick Sync support during encoding processes are Emby Media Server , Plex Media Server , Badaboom Media Converter, CyberLink MediaShow, CyberLink MediaEspresso, ArcSoft MediaConverter, MAGIX Video Pro X, Pinnacle Studio (since version 18), Roxio Toast , Roxio Creator , XSplit Broadcaster , XSplit Gamecaster (all commercial) and projects like HandBrake , Open Broadcaster Software or applications for operation with
416-748: The Quick Sync Video hardware and make use of it. Quick Sync support on Linux is available by both Intel VAAPI Driver (legacy, pre-Broadwell) and Intel Media Driver (Broadwell and newer) which also uses VA-API , and through the Intel Media SDK. Microsoft offers support for Quick Sync in Windows (in Windows Vista and later) based on supporting driver software from Intel and support through both DirectX as well as WMF ( Windows Media Foundation ). A wide range of applications are based upon this base support for
442-609: The back side of this target. The setup could also be used as a genlock . PowerDVD PowerDVD is a media player software for Microsoft Windows created by CyberLink , for DVD movie discs , Blu-ray movie discs , and digital video files, photos and music. PowerDVD is offered in various versions, which vary greatly in terms of functionality, and can be expanded to include additional functions such as playback of licensed audio formats or power-saving functions for use on notebooks using plug-ins and so-called “enhancement packs”. During 2016, PowerDVD achieved certification from
468-451: The cost and difficulty of handling movie files. However, transcoding into a JPEG2000 lossless format has better compression performance than other lossless coding technologies, and in many cases, JPEG2000 can compress images to half-size. Transcoding is commonly a lossy process , introducing generation loss ; however, transcoding can be lossless if the output is either losslessly compressed or uncompressed. The process of transcoding into
494-481: The diversity of mobile devices and their capabilities. This diversity requires an intermediate state of content adaptation in order to make sure that the source content will adequately function on the target device to which it is sent. Transcoding video from most consumer digital cameras can reduce the file size significantly while keeping the quality about the same. This is possible because most consumer cameras are real-time , power-constrained devices having neither
520-497: The processing power nor the robust power supplies of desktop CPUs. One of the most popular technologies in which transcoding is used is the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), which is the technology used to send or receive messages with media (image, sound, text and video) between mobile phones. For example, when a camera phone is used to take a digital picture, a high-quality image of usually at least 640x480 pixels
546-430: The quality of images being recorded (e.g. analog or digital, standard def. or high def., etc.), and type of equipment available to the user, which is often related to budget constraints – as highest quality digital video equipment, and storage space, may be expensive. Effectively this means that any transcoding will involve some cumulative image loss, and hence the most practical solution insofar as minimizing loss of quality
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#1732872995243572-582: The recommended settings. A 2012 evaluation by AnandTech showed that QuickSync on Intel's Ivy Bridge produced similar image quality compared to the NVENC encoder on Nvidia's GTX 680 while performing much better at resolutions lower than 1080p. Quick Sync was first unveiled at Intel Developer Forum 2010 (September 13) but, according to Tom's Hardware , Quick Sync had been conceptualized five years before that. The older Clarkdale microarchitecture had hardware video decoding support, but no hardware encoding support; it
598-539: The technology in Windows. Apple added Quick Sync support in OS X Mountain Lion for AirPlay , FaceTime , iTunes , Safari , QuickTime X , iMovie , Final Cut Pro X , Motion and Compressor . Third-party software includes Adobe Premiere Pro , Adobe Media Encoder, DaVinci Resolve and others. Support for Quick Sync hardware accelerated decoding of H.264, MPEG-2, and VC-1 video is widely available. One common way to gain access to
624-555: The technology on Microsoft Windows is by use of the free ffdshow filter. Some other free software like VLC media player (since version 2.1.0 "Rincewind") supports Quick Sync as well. Many commercial applications also benefit from the technology today, including CyberLink PowerDVD , CyberLink PowerDirector and MacroMotion Bogart "gold" edition. According to the ffdshow documentation, Quick Sync has very low CPU utilization while being about twice as fast as libavcodec . Support for hardware-assisted media encoding tailored for Quick Sync
650-409: The web and a plethora of mobile devices. Before the advent of semiconductors and integrated circuits, realtime resolution and frame rate transcoding between different analog video standards was achieved by a CRT / camera tube combination. The CRT part does not write onto a phosphor , but onto a thin, dielectric target; the camera part reads the deposited charge pattern at a different scan rate from
676-414: Was known as Intel Clear Video . The Quick Sync Video SIP core needs to be supported by the device driver . The device driver provides one or more interfaces , for example VDPAU , Video Acceleration API (VA-API) or DXVA for video decoding, and OpenMAX IL or VA API for video encoding. One of these interfaces is then used by end-user software, for example VLC media player or GStreamer , to access
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