The difference between video decoding hard solution and soft solution

The so-called "soft solution" is to let the CPU perform video decoding processing through software; and the "hard solution" means that the video decoding is performed separately by a dedicated device (sub-card) independent of the CPU, such as the former VCD/DVD decompression card and video. Compressed cards are all titled "hard solution." Now HD hard solutions do not require additional daughter cards and no additional investment, because the hard decoding module is integrated inside the GPU, and current mainstream graphics cards (including integrated graphics) can support hard decoding.

Hardware solutions

The "hard solution" actually needs software support, but basically does not require the CPU to participate in the operation, thus saving a lot of resource overhead for the system. By reducing the CPU usage, you can bring a lot of benefits to users:

The advantages of GPU hard decoding HD video:

1. Don't need too good CPU, single core is enough, CPU saves a lot of money;

2. Hard decoding is basically equivalent to free delivery, and the integrated motherboard of less than 500 yuan can be perfectly supported;

3. Hard decoding makes the CPU usage extremely low, and the system has the ability to perform multi-task operations while watching HDTV;

4. The CPU needs to do its best to decode the HDTV, and the GPU only needs to use the decoding module of 0.1 billion transistors to complete the task, and the power consumption control is better;

The disadvantage of GPU hard decoding HD video:

1. Starting late, the software support cannot be compared with the soft solution;

2. In the face of chaotic video coding and encapsulation formats, hard decoding cannot be fully compatible;

3. The soft solution has a large amount of picture output compensation and image quality enhancement technology, and the hard solution is far from enough;

4. Hard decoding software settings are more complicated, many friends simply do not know how to properly use GPU hardware decoding.

Although hard decoding has various shortcomings, it is still highly sought after by users, because the two fatal temptations of low cost and energy saving are hard to resist. With the passage of time, the shortcomings of hard decoding are basically improved, but many people still don't know how to use hard decoding. This article will release the real power of hard decoding through a large number of application cases!

Soft solution

Soft solutions are an operation performed in software. According to the different meanings of the word "solution", they are divided into two categories. One is software decoding and the other is software unlocking. Decoding usually refers to the software decoding of video. The picture effect obtained by software decoding is usually much better than hardware decoding when the computer configuration is good enough; and software unlocking is a kind of software program that achieves the purpose of cracking. means.

The soft solution is decoded by the software's codec (encoder), and the hard solution is decoded by the hardware firmware (which has already set the decoding information). Software decoding consumes CPU, hardware decoding requires special hardware support, but does not consume CPU.

Video soft solution

The so-called video soft solution is to achieve the process of displaying the video picture through the player's own splitter decoder and picture rendering.

Often controversial with soft and hard solutions is the high bit rate Blu-ray movie. Blu-ray movies usually have BDRIP, BDISO, M2TS, etc., and different names correspond to different formats. BDrip usually includes mkv, MP4, avi and other formats. The usual compression format is now H.264, or an uncompressed source format. Under normal circumstances, many computer soft solutions will cause serious video and audio synchronization, or serious dropped frames, people can not appreciate the video very well, so some people use the graphics hardware acceleration to help the CPU decode the video.

Under normal circumstances, the CPU reaches the dual-core 2.0GHZ memory of 2G or more, and the minimum degree of Blu-ray soft solution can be achieved. And now some decoders can call the graphics card and the CPU at the same time, jointly undertake the operation, greatly reducing the CPU load and achieving a more efficient soft solution.

Software unlock

Software unlocking includes two contents, one is to unlock the hardware, and the other is to unlock the software.

Hardware aspect

There are so many products that can be unlocked by software. In a word, it covers all fields. Any hardware or software that has been locked is modified or complicated by software to unlock it. A means of limiting the results of use).

For example, the iPhone can unlock the software (unlock the network lock) and jailbreak to achieve the result of free use of the software. The PSP is unlocked by the software, and the firmware system can be used to achieve the free play of ISO games and the use of homemade software.

Different hardware is unlocked by different software.

Compared with hardware unlocking, software unlocking is safe, fast, convenient, easy to operate, easy to control, etc. The most important thing is that it does not cause irreversible damage to the hardware, and maximizes the security of the hardware. The soft solution is easy to use and easy to unlock. It is the most important way to unlock the general hardware.

Software aspect

Software unlocking is usually a means of encrypting files, exhausting them to crack passwords, and unlocking files to see the purpose of internal data. More famous software such as brute force RAR encryption.

In this case, hardware decoding is to transfer a part of the video data that was originally processed by the CPU to the GPU, and the parallel computing power of the GPU is much higher than the CPU, which can greatly reduce the load on the CPU. After the CPU usage is low, you can run some other programs at the same time. Of course, for better processors, such as i5 2320, or any AMD quad-core processor, hard solutions and software. The difference is just a matter of personal preference.

Although hard decoding is good, it has some disadvantages: First, software support is relatively lagging behind in terms of soft decoding; Second, in the face of a wide variety of video encoding and video formats, hard decoding compatibility is a big problem; Third, the hard decoding software settings are more complicated, the primary users are not very convenient to use; Fourth, some techniques of soft decoding, hard decoding is not realized.