ProPlayer

The hardware requirements are to some degree dependent on the use case. Compressed video playback demands a fast CPU while a raw video playback demands a fast hard disk.

Compressed video playback:

In general, the faster the CPU the better, this translates into higher maximum supported bitrate and/or frame rate. Core2Duo or equivalent is the minimum suggested CPU for a single bitstream playback, any Quad core i5/i7 or equivalent should be used for a side-by-side playback. Recommended CPU is Intel's 2nd generation Core2Duo SandyBridge, preferably 2600K or better. It packs enough performance to support dual 1080P60 4:2:2 10-bit playback. It also supports hardware video compression acceleration, which might get utilized in future versions of ProPlayer. Since different video compression formats have very different CPU performance requirements and the demand also changes significantly based on the parameters of the compressed video, it is close to impossible to specify exact CPU requirements. Unless the SandyBridge 2600K or better is used, the system needs to be tested with the compressed video.

As a reference point, dual H264 1080i60 4:2:0 8-bit decode at 50Mbps each takes some 20-25% of the i7-2600K processor, dual Mpeg2 1080i60 at 150Mbps each takes less than 10%.

Video decompression is currently implemented all in software without any hardware acceleration even if available. ProPlayer was intentionally designed this way to be able to fix or improve any compability or stability issues if any arise later on. This approach also allows for bitstream analyses and statistics reporting.

Raw video playback:

 The raw video playback in general is not very CPU demanding, but the split screen mode at 1080P60 will require better than the base Core2Duo CPU. On the other hand, it requires a very fast file system to deliver HD raw video in real-time. There are several options available, how to built the system to support uncompressed video playback at HD resolutions:

• If only short clips are used, Windows will cache the file into the system memory as the file is being read for the first time, the subsequent loops will be played from the memory at full speed as the memory is typically much faster than any HD video requires. This works well if the system has more system memory available than the file size of the raw video file. In this setup, the real time playback cannot be guaranteed the first time the file is played, but the subsequent iterations are real time. Most PCs without any fast HDD support can operate in this mode unless an instant real-time playback of a very large file is required. 8GB RAM will accommodate about 1 minute of 1080i60 raw video.
• A single 2TB HDD can deliver around 120MB/s, which is enough to support a single 1080i60 or 720P60 8-bit 4:2:0 raw video playback.
• For side-by-side playback, clips can be stored on different physical hard drives. This setup might not be always practical from the file organization point of view.
• Most modern motherboards support RAID HDD configurations. Dual 1080P60 playback is very demanding if required, on the other hand it can be played at slower rate (30P or 24P) if it is acceptable. Slower playback of a progressive video does not introduce any artifacts (other than the slower playback speed) as it is the case with any interlaced video (1080i60 for instance).
• Solid State hard drives are becoming more and more affordable while their capacity is constantly increasing. The SSD specifications need to be checked to evaluate whether it can deliver the real time raw video playback. It is also important to verify the performance of the hard disk controller since it can be the limiting factor.
• Another option is to encode the clips off-line with Mpeg2 at high bitrate and use the bitstreams instead. 50Mbps for 1080i60/720p60 should not produce any noticeable video quality degradation most of the time. 50Mbps will not demand any fast HDD and most modern CPUs will play Mpeg2 at this bitrate easily. The video compression functionality will be introduced in future.

Minimum and recommended configuration:

CPU: Core2Duo or equivalent. Quad core i5/i7 or better is recommended. SandyBridge 2600K is strongly preferred.
Motherboard: mostly depends on the selected BlackMagic card(s) to have enough PCIe 2.0 1x or 4x slots. ASUS P8Z68-V is recommended for Core2Duo 2600K CPU.
Video card: any on board or external PC video card. Account for the PCIe slot an external PC video card might use.
HDD: very depended on the use case(s). Separate from the OS, a 2TB drive for raw video clips is recommended.
Memory: 2GB. 4GB or more is recommended if larger files need to be cached, see above
OS: Windows XP or newer. Windows 7 Professional 64-bit is recommended.

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