More Codec performance test

[samsc]

60 different codecs and compression settings on 3 different single drive systems.
Playback is on 1 layer only. Results do not scale to multiple layers
NOTE: System disc is NOT the drive disc.

Tested
Single Raptor 74GB
Single 10k SCSI Atlas iV
Single 15k SCSI

Results:
Different drive Systems are pretty similiar.
10k drive is not slower than 15k drive.
Raptor is slower at uncompressed data - but pretty similiar with compressed codecs. ( Blackmagic codecs are uncompressed )
Single layer 25fps playback of 720p footage is possible with:
photojpeg 50% & 75% and mjpegA 50% & 75%

Single layer 25 fps playback of 1080p footage is possible with
photojpeg 50% and mjpeg 50% ( just )
and marginally at photojpeg 75% and mjpegA 75% ( just )

[samsc]

60 different codecs tested playing back 4 layers of the same type of content

tested on internal drive
internal raptor 74GB
scsi 15000rpm Maxtor Atlas 74GB
scsi 10000rpm Maxtor Atlas iV 140GB
dual raptor - firmtek card

Results

Internal drive is very very bad.( and these figures are just averages - not deviations, the internal drive has poor consistency ).
Raptor, and scsi 10k and scsi 15k have close performance.
scsi 10k is slightly faster with some codecs.

Only dv-ntsc will give close to 30fps performance on all 4 layers.
DV-NTSC is slightly faster than DV-PAL- the difference is important

[samsc]

60 different codecs tested playing back 4 layers of the same type of content

These results are a little geeky.
Ill try and find to way to present them which makes more sense.

[samsc]

Single and dual raptors same files.
4th layer complete time

dual raptors have slight edge with dv codecs.
Not much in it.

[samsc]

Softraid vs Apple raid.

Very little in it....

[mdc1138]

Softraid vs Apple raid.

Very little in it....

Did you play with any of the settings? Different , journalled or not, etc.

[litemover]

Richard,

Thank you for this very valuable and obviously painstaking information. It must have taken a very long time to compile all of this.

I'm just curious, what was the media you used for this? What clip was it?

Christian Choi

[samsc]

Richard,

Thank you for this very valuable and obviously painstaking information. It must have taken a very long time to compile all of this.

I'm just curious, what was the media you used for this? What clip was it?

Christian Choi

I automated everything, and had the software write out the results to a tab delimited file.
...Im lazy...
then i imported all the information into excel. Wrote some scripts to order everything correctly, then plotted graphs in Deltagraph.
Took about 5 days.
But the results were worth it.
I now have the ability to benchmark anything really quickly.
And I built-in the testing to the software - so you can do it if i tell you where its hidden...

---

I used 5 different hi-def 1080p files from Digital juice,
http://www.digitaljuice.com/products...p?cid=1&pvid=5

i converted them using 'Compressor' to 68 different file formats.
Compressor is quite good at doing this- and will do 68 output files - into the correct folders - with different sizes and codecs - from a single click....
http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro/compressor.html

i got my copy from buying DVD studio pro.

[litemover]

I now have the ability to benchmark anything really quickly.
And I built-in the testing to the software - so you can do it if i tell you where its hidden...

Sounds good to me! Nevertheless, Great job at figuring all that out. Thank you again.

Christian Choi

[Spam Butterfly]

Christian,

The thumbnail thing on the EX-1/ DX2 was actually developed for Catalyst Media Servers ;-). You have to have the same content on the DX2 Mac as you do on the EX-1.

I saw the EX-1 running with 3 3d objects and a artbeats movie behind. The performance was not good. The movie was playing at around 15 fps... I noticed this at their demo.

I was under the impression that the EX-1 spare media server was just that. Or for doing dual output stuff.

The problem with the EX-1 is you could spend all your programming time just lighting your 3D objects - which you could do in Maya or any other 3d package.

Zillions of DMX channels.

Hugh