hd switching, is it possible in software currently?

[Snu]

High definition switching,
I know vt doesnt support it yet, but is it even possible with the current hardware available? Either switching in hd, or recording two hd streams at once. What kind of computer hardware would be required for 1080p30?
We are planning on upgrading our vt system for later hd capability. Would a 1333mhz fsb be enough to handle two hd streams? Or would hard drive speed likely be the bottleneck?

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

[ScorpioProd]

NAB is coming up in under three weeks.

I would recommend waiting till then and seeing what Newtek and other companies announce.

Black Magic has already had basic HD switching with their Intensity Pro cards on a Mac for a while now.

[Snu]

Unfortunately, we cant wait, our system's motherboard is dead. We need to decide if its worth upgrading or not thing week.
i thought the intensity was just a capture card? How does it do switching?

[Snu]

Ah, I found a link talking about their software, but it doesnt talk much about system requirements... im wondering if it does the switching in hardware rather than software.
Also, we currently have a setup of 4 cameras, that would be the absolute minimum number of inputs (and we dont have a mac anyway).

[CreatvGnius]

i thought the intensity was just a capture card? How does it do switching?It does so within the software that ships with said hardware card.

Actually, I was thinking that the Intensity Pro at least, was both for Mac and Windows. Hmm. Maybe that's Mac and Windows, on an Intel-based Mac, instead.

Any more info on this?
-PeterG

[ScorpioProd]

The card, or cards if you're doing switching, is Mac or PC, but AFAIK, the switching software is Mac-only.

The switching is purely done in software.

[CreatvGnius]

... AFAIK, the [HD]switching software is Mac-only.
The switching is purely done in software.

Thanks for that, Eugene. Any known reason for those cards' software, only enabling switching in a Mac environment?

Or, is there some known bottleneck, in today's PC hardware architecture, that doesn't allow for at least 1080i HD, 60 fields per sec switching?

Just a few years ago, it was widely imagined that the PC manufacturers were seriously bent on beating the television manufacturers in the realm of HD throughput capability.

Little had I imagined that this notion would not have impacted the progress of live, simultaneous HD switching and recording of multiple sources, within in the PC environment in 2008, no less . ;)
-PeterG

[ScorpioProd]

Thanks for that, Eugene. Any known reason for those cards' software, only enabling switching in a Mac environment?

More creative programmers, maybe? :hey:

[Bobt]

>Or, is there some known bottleneck, in today's PC hardware architecture, that doesn't >allow for at least 1080i HD, 60 fields per sec switching?
No way. PC's ROCK. 1080i or P.


Bob

[CreatvGnius]

...Or, is there some known bottleneck, in today's PC hardware architecture, that doesn't allow for at least 1080i HD, 60 fields per sec switching?

No way. PC's ROCK. 1080i or P. Bob
Since when: since just 12 months or so ago, or what -- and what particular aspect(s) of the architecture in recent months or years, made this live HD switching (of at least two simultaneous HD streams of 1080i or 1080p) possible on PCs, pray tell? :)
-PeterG

[ScorpioProd]

Firstly, PCI Express.

Secondly, the simple speed of FSB/RAM/CPU nowadays.

When I first got my VT card, which works to this day, and hasn't really evolved much, I had it in a system with a P-II 450MHz with 384MB of PC-100 RAM.

Look where we are today.

[Snu]

thank you for your replies, good stuff to know. we upgraded the system to a dual quad core xeon (2.5ghz, 12mb l2, 1333fsb). 4gb of ram, im thinking the ram might be a little low tho...
probably will need to upgrade the harddrives, hd is no doubt considerably larger in file size.

ive also been doing some research on linux switcher software, seems the ideal for it in my opinion - have a very minimal linux distro for maximum stability and speed.
heck, maybe ill even program my own switcher using a library, but newtek would probably finish vt6 before i finish it!

i suppose the best bet is to wait for NAB, see what newtek unleashes, and go from there.