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NDI Capture PC - Hardware question
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FAndreas  
#1 Posted : Tuesday, June 7, 2016 9:59:59 AM(UTC)
FAndreas

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Hei guys,

I'm thinking about building kind of a NDI capture box. A small headless PC with just a Decklink Duo 2 and the capability to capture 4 SDI/HDMI Feeds and a copy of vMix to serve this feeds in the network for another machine with vMix (perhaps a notebook) which inputs these NDI sources for making the production.

If i take a simple standard PC, like a small Dell Optiplex 3040 Mini Tower with Core i3 and Intel integrated graphics 530, could it be possible that this PC would handle 4x 1080 50/60p input feeds and serve this over NDI? Just inputs without mixing and other effects.

I would love to get your opinion for that.

Regards
Andreas
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AElli  
#2 Posted : Tuesday, June 7, 2016 3:40:18 PM(UTC)
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A good solution whilst awaiting the manufacturer's giving us a solution. With four 3g inputs and prob four networked outputs Id go for a high spec I7 cpu if your budget allows. Also maybe something better than intergrated graphics card.

In similar I tested a gigabyte brix PC with an I5 6200u 8gb with a couple magewell SDI dongles for 3g capture. whilst it ran OK, pesonally I wouldn't trust it to my "higher end" projects.

Maybe as a single input device, yes.... but at just over $600 I'm not far from a bird-dog converter when they become available.

A.
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FAndreas  
#3 Posted : Wednesday, June 8, 2016 4:48:21 AM(UTC)
FAndreas

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An i7?
Just for inputting 4 HD Feeds?
Are NDI outputs very CPU intensive?

Thanks for the note with the Gigabye Brix but I would prefer a PC with PCIe Slots.

Regards
Andreas
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AElli  
#4 Posted : Wednesday, June 8, 2016 2:26:55 PM(UTC)
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I think its definitely more than an i3 can handle..

Grabing a 1080p 50/60 video feed..
Coding that data, then compressing it with the ndi codec to send it out over your network. Now times everything x4 because you have 4 feeds, and times again by the no. of places you want to send those streams, that's a lot for an i3 to cope with.

I tried it with an i5 and two video feeds but it just didn't really work, maybe for me it's the brix / magewell usb3 bandwidth although A single stream ran a lot better, had smoother video playout with better frame rates. As It only takes a couple fails to tarnish a reputation ive put it back to one side. Maybe If i was streaming a local club / Association AGM or a small low budget venue then yeah I'd give this idea a re-try. However if i do upgrade to an i7 with using my solution for only 1 solo stream it does come in over the cost of a bird-dog converter. So as is mostly, it's costs related to performance and reliability.

But hey, if you already have the parts lying around you have nothing but time to loose if it doesn't work out, and a little tinkering can be a good fun.

A.

( edited to correct auto spell check )
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FAndreas  
#5 Posted : Thursday, June 9, 2016 10:16:38 AM(UTC)
FAndreas

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You were absolutely right.

I tested with an Skylake i3 and integrated graphics and two BMD Decklink inputs at 720p50. With two NDI outputs CPU was at 60-70%. I just had one client which used the NDI outputs as inputs.

Currently I am not aware of the NDI specs. Does vMix really rendering every single output for every client again? I would think that vMix captures a NDI rendition once and serves it to every client.

Regards
Andreas
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homeless  
#6 Posted : Thursday, June 9, 2016 10:57:02 AM(UTC)
homeless

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NDI use multicast, and for 1 ndi output vmix create only 1 stream.
P.S. - ooooops, sorry !!! NDI use multicast for search sources. But - it is point-to-point technology. 1 viewer=1 stream, 2 viewer=2 stream and etc... But i think it is not very hard to vMix - it is prepeare data to 1 stream and simple duplicate it to another streams. http://www.zenvideo.co.uk/ndi.htm - for interest
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FAndreas  
#7 Posted : Friday, June 10, 2016 8:24:31 AM(UTC)
FAndreas

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Thank you for the link.
OK, so if every NDI output will only be rendered once you only have one time cpu load for an NDI output, regardless how many receivers are on the network. Thats a good info.
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