H.264 encoder coming to PS3

Joystiq writes: "Here's another way to harness the power of the PS3's Cell chip. Fixstars Corporation of Japan has announced CodecSys CE-10, the first H.264 encoder that's designed specifically for the PS3. The product will be showcased at the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas starting April 20th. The CE-10 software will be installed on a PC, but will somehow allow users to access the power of the PS3 as a way of accelerating video encoding. Fixstars is promising "ultra fast HD encoding" and "high quality low bit rate compression," targeted at the prosumer market at a prosumer price."

[testerg35]

I think you're talking about a codec/decoder.

[y0haN]

What was jack's original comment? PM me!

[CoxMulder]

Will Bloodmask write a blog about THIS kind of ignorance??

Well, I guess we all know the answer to that question...

[frictionini]

the only problem is pirates will take advantage of this. Ripped blu-ray copy made easy

[Lumbo]

It is not free, it is not even cheap. Prosumer market = high price. It will just not be priced like professional equipment. But still much higher than the average movie pirate would care to pay, as they tend to like to pay nothing to begin with.

[FamilyGuy]

There is already software that is optimized and designed specifically for that already. It's called MkvToVob and it's a, PS3 owning, pirates dream come true.

[uie4rhig]

yeah well.. Windows used to cost £400, yet many people who didn't wanna dish out that kind of monies, had it installed on their PC :P
just a headsup.. the tubes does a lot these days :)

[Lumbo]

It's interesting for ambitioned video amateurs. The application won't be as expensive as professional equipment, as its targeted at "prosumers" aka consumers who want near pro results and are ready to pay more than normal consumers for it. Its a semi-pro market.

The basics seem to be a selfbooting YellowDog embedded linux on a flashmemory that has the encoder software preinstalled. You stick that into the USB of the PS3 and boot otheros. Your PC gui can then access the PS3 via network as an encoding station.

[free2game365]

Encoding from a GPU would be a lot faster and cost less.

[ogwilson]

But the GPU is locked down to the Linux OS

[Bloodshedder]

well another thing i have no use for on my ps3... but i still have MGS 4 Killzone2 uncharted Heavy Rain!!!!!!! GoW 3(God of War 3 not gears you fools its GoW for God of War stop using it for gears!!!!:@!!!) and many many more!

[GamerPS360]

makes it 2 :D

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

"E74 encoder coming to xBox 360" ;-D
Oh they got it already!!! DAM YOU M$!!! ;-D

[Etseix]

ROFL

[euchreprof]

Imagine how sad it would be if we owned an Xbox 360 and not a PS3.

[d0nT wOrrY]

RRoDbox just failing hard day by day.

PS3 FTW

[tudors]

but the reality is he just did not understand what the H.264 is going to be used for, and you know what neither do I, so pray do tell what is the use exactly? maybe you should enlighten us all with your wisdom.

[Chuck Norris]

If only you bothered to read the article or Lumbo's post..

[Ju]

Possible solutions to a knowledge problem could be Wiki ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... ) or Google ( http://lmgtfy.com/?q=h.264 ).

[WildArmed]

lol Google was invented for a reason.. so was wikipedia.
OH WAIT! The article already says what it does.

So firstly, how about people start by reading the article? Then using google/wiki to find out what encoders are.

Jack who's comment was utterly ignorant.
(btw your comment is understandable, on the other hand, Jack's was a fanboy's comment)

[tudors]

and I know the difference between a encoder and a decoder but this does not excuse people being abusive if someone gets it wrong.

[Chubear]

... you're the last one to talk about abusive dude.

[UltimateIdiot911]

That's why people shouldn't say nonsense if they don't really know what they are talking about. Jumping to conclusion will only make a fool out of yourself. It's people like jack who that spread fud around because they lack proper knowledge and go around talking. It's okay to make a mistake once in a while but jack who here is known to troll.

[dale1]

jack who,jack ass

[maverick1191]

not surprised he's not replied back again on this article i'b be embarrassed with a comment like that hes a clear fanboy and a very dumb one

[enjoi187]

cough cough pc cough

[KrimsonKody]

...yeah.
Just want I've been dreaming for,

[jlemdon]

Guys who were talking about the 360, this has already been an update for the 360. I remember right before I brought the HD-DVD add on.

[PirateThom]

That was a decoder. This is an encoder.

[crillyconlig]

another person that cant read an article before commenting

[Ninjamonkey]

ok...

so what is this?

In fact, I dont care, whilst the ps3 is a great gaming system i really dont need this thing...

[Pandamobile]

I can already encode the Matrix (2 hour movie) into a H.264 Mp4 file in under 30 minutes. I doubt the PS3 will do this faster.

[Ju]

The bottleneck will be to get the data to and from the PS3. Gigabit ethernet might help. But I would like to see some performance numbers, to be honest.

[DaTruth]

I think they mean the MP4 avc which takes a lot longer. But if that's what you're talking about than lucky you. Takes me 12 hours for hi-def 2hr movie.

If they do get higher quality and lower bit-rate, I would love this as the 4 gig limit kills any chance of high quality 1080p encoding. Also, I have yet to find an AVC encoder that can encode 5.1 surround.
If anyone knows of a good one PM or reply please.

[Pandamobile]

I've got a video card that encodes with 480 stream processors. I'd like to see a PS3 encode a video faster.

[Statix]

It probably can do it faster. The Cell processor is supposed to be extremely adept for data-intensive processing tasks, including multimedia-related ones. There's a reason they string up several PS3s together at universities and research facilities for use as ad hoc supercomputers.

[mirroredderorrim]

Ju gets an agree for sharing the same concern.

I too want to see performance numbers, because at the end of the day, it's what really matters.

Other than that, this holds interesting possibilities in the near future, if this proves solid. which, I think it may.

[1ikedamaster]

Useless to me as a gamer.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

This is great and all but what I really want to see is a codec for PS3 to play H.264 encoded files particularly in an .mkv container.

Right now I am able to transcode my H.264 and while the quality is better than any avi, wmv, etc after some performance tweeks, it still would be nice to play them natively.

This will help whose encoding into the format so that is a plus but native playback is still an issue for consoles and one I think people are more interested in a solution for.

[Lumbo]

There is no codec for mkv files, as mkv is not an encode, but a container file format. Remuxing the video/audio files inside the mkv container into a compatible container format should take no time at all. But then, codecs and containers get mixed up all the time ... A H.264 encoded video will look EXACTLY the same regardless if its stuffed into a .mkv or an .avi container, the container format has zero influence on the encode.

Sure it would be nice if consoles would support the mkv container format natively, but don't hold your breath for it to happen, as they already support equal container formats like mp4, avi and wmf that have a better support from business partners then the open source mkv variant.

The most used combination used seems to be a mkv container holding a h.264 encoded video stream and an ac3 encoded audio stream. A simple demux/remux to a mp4 container should fix any issues as .mp4 is a supported container on consoles. Though mkv has a superior subtitle capacity imho. But as most encodes come with hardcoded subs anyways ... that seems to be a pointless advantage.

[Nanisimo]

That's awesome!

[PtRoLLFacE]

finally something good

[Ldubbz]

I dont see the point in this. Im a video editor, and I can tell you this is pointless. What video program would even use this?

The main video program used on Windows for video editing is Avid Media Composer, which has very little to no use with h.264, save for exporting. Final Cut Pro does use h.264 more for editing, but this is not designed for Mac OS X.

I couldnt see why anyone who does a lot of this type of work wouldnt have a h.264 encoder already, that would not only be faster but much more robust in terms of options.

[gameman]

what ever helps you sleep