VidPort Technical Reference Guide TD-VID-HD-REF-C

Transcription

1 Page 1 of 29 VidPort Technical Reference Guide TD-VID-HD-REF-C Document Name Version Issue date TD-VID-HD-REF-C C Name Date Prepared by Tong Lin Reviewed by Approved by

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4 Page 4 of 29 Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION PURPOSE OBJECTIVES INTENDED AUDIENCE REFERENCE DOCUMENTS SOFTWARE & HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS REQUIRED SYSTEM AND HARDWARE DVEO cards Computer systems REQUIRED SOFTWARE Windows Software Linux Software INSTALL DRIVER AND AVAILABLE SOFTWARE INSTALL AND CONFIGURE WINDOWS DRIVER Install Windows driver Verify and configure Windows Driver INSTALL AND CONFIGURE LINUX DRIVER Install Linux driver Using Linux driver VERIFY HD-SDI SOURCES Using TestBed application Using videocapture in Linux AVAILABLE SOFTWARE DirectShow Filter application Windows API VLC video player for Windows Windows Expression Encoder for Windows Mplayer for Linux HOW DOES THE CARD, DRIVER AND APPLICATION WORK TOGETHER Video format support table HD Cameras and camcorders Encoding and Decoding HD-SDI Vertical ancillary data (VANC) API DEVELOPMENT Windows API Linux API TROUBLESHOOTING Unable to install driver, the driver installer does not support the computer language Unable to open Capture Device DirectShow Filters Getting error message unable to register filters, required module is not found in Windows XP The video shown in VLC Is 16:9 not 4:3 in Widescreen format There is no audio from the incoming stream There are no devices listed under the device manager... 13

5 Page 5 of 29 Getting error message unable to register filter, a side-by-side error has occurred Unable to see any incoming video from the source via DirectShow sample application APPENDIX VLC setup Windows Expression Encoder setup... 21

6 Page 6 of Introduction 1.1 Purpose This purpose of this document is to provide instructions, documentation and direction for how to install, configure and develop Vidport and QuadPort H/I card. 1.2 Objectives After reading this document, the will able to perform and understand: - How to obtain and install the driver and software for Vidport and QuadPort cards. - The video format the cards support? - The function of Vidport and QuadPort cards. - The developmental environment available for VidPort and QuadPort cards? - The kinds of API is available? 1.3 Intended Audience This document is for the multimedia station operators, installers and video developers. 2. Reference Documents OP-TM-SAPI : OP-TM-DSFL : Synchronous API Technical Reference Manual DirectShow Filter Reference Manual OP-TM-VLCW : Using VLC to view, capture and stream HD-SDI streams using Vidport or Quadport cards OP-TM-MEEW : Using Microsoft Expression Encoder to view, capture and stream HD-SDI streams using VidPort EG-QI-VW7G : VidPort Windows 7 Quick Installation Guide OP-TM-FFLN : Encoding and Decoding in Linux with FFMpeg All of them are available under the following addresses: Primary: Mirror: 3. Software & Hardware requirements 3.1 Required system and hardware DVEO cards Vidport SD/HD Input card Model 193 Vidport SD/HD Output card Model 193 NOTE: Vidport Input / output card is the same board, the transfer direction can be changed by change the firmware. Only one transfer direction can be used on the board at one time. For Full Duplex operations, two cards are needed.

7 Page 7 of 29 QuadPort H/I input card Model Computer systems Quad Core CPU with a 2.0 Ghz processor or higher 4 GB of DDR3 RAM Standalone video card with 1GB of stand alone memory or more 3.2 Required Software 3.1 Windows Software Windows Master Driver (Includes free TestBed application and source code) Windows DirectShow Filters (Windows 7 only, Includes free sample code). Windows DirectShow Filters (For QuadPort H/I only with Windows Media Encoder 9 only) Windows API (Including free Diskrouter application and code source) 3.2 Linux Software Linux Master Driver (Includes free driver code and sample API with documentation) Mplayer (Available free via code source) You can download them from the following websites: DVEO website: Development mirror: 4. Install driver and available software 4.1 Install and configure Windows Driver Install Windows driver 1. Download driver from the DVEO website or from development mirror site 2. Run the executable file on the system. The installation file will automatically install the driver into the system if the operating system is Windows 7 or higher. (In Windows XP or Windows 7 with Asian language, driver needs to be installed manually) 3. For step by step installation details. Please read EG-QI-VW7G Windows 7 installation guide Verify and configure Windows Driver After the driver has been installed. Follow the instructions below to verify the driver is installed and configured to be used with HD-SDI. 1. Click on Start and select Linear Systems Ltd then Windows Master Driver. Then select DVBcfg Application. After the application is launched, if the driver is installed, there should be between 2 to 8 selections depending on the card installed. 2. Select channel 1, change the buffer size to and the number of buffer to 40. (Both numbers might increase depending on the system and usage) 3. Perform instruction 1 and 2 for channel 3, 5, 7 if exits. 4. After the driver is configured is, the system needs to be rebooted, please REBOOT the system NOTE: If the selection box is empty, then driver is not installed, re-install the driver again. 4.2 Install and configure Linux Driver Install Linux driver 1. Download driver from the available downloading location. 2. Make sure the Linux account has root access by using the su command.

8 Page 8 of Uncompress the driver by using tar vzxf command or use the Linux GUI to extract the files. 4. Go to the master driver directory and type make or make install to install the driver to kernel Using Linux driver 1. After the driver is installed, please use the dmesg or command available with Linux OS to check if the driver installed. A message should display as Linear Systems Vidport SD/HD and firmware. 2. Linux driver is created under the GPL license agreement. It is available for free, it is under the src directory of the driver folder. 3. Under the driver folder, there is also an Examples folder. In that folder, API examples are listed there which are free to use, change and update the existing code. Detail about these APIs will be provided in the Doc section. 4. HD-SDI is under SDIVIDEO and SDIAUDIO folders. Use videocapture and videoplayout to test the incoming streams. 4.3 Verify HD-SDI sources Using TestBed application When using VidPort Input or QuadPort H/I card, it is recommended to verify the incoming HD-SDI is valid. That can be done by using TestBed application. Double click on the DVBTestBed application link, open the application. Select the video device under the receive window Click on the Start button. Under the Receive (Mbps) row, receive rate of 1461 or 1000 Mbps should be shown like in figure Using videocapture in Linux

9 Page 9 of 29 Linux does not have a GUI test application like TestBed application. videocapature command needs to be used to verify that HD-SDI stream is valid. NOTE: during receive; the LED lights on the back of the machine should blink continuously. 4.3 Available Software DirectShow Filter application - Download the Directshow filters installer and run the installer to install the filter to your system. - After the installation is complete, the filters needed to be registered. On a 64-it system, there are choices to register 32-bit or 64-bit filter, register the 32-bit filter if the filters are expected to be used as a capture device with multi-media application. The multi-media applications does not support 64-bit capture devices. - After the filter is installed and registered. The filter is ready to be used by VLC and Windows Media Encoder. NOTE 1: Filter only works with Windows 7, Windows 2008 server. Windows XP only works with and QuadPort H/I with Windows Media Encoder 9. NOTE 2: Please note that currently VidPort Output is not working with DirectShow Filters Windows API Currently, there are three different Windows APIs available with HD-SDI. They are: - TestBed application & sample code which came with Windows Master Driver - Diskrouter HD application. (Available upon request) - DirectShow Filters application sample code. Please see API section 6 for more details VLC video player for Windows DirectShow filters can be used with VLC to display, capture or broadcast a HD-SDI stream via a compressed format. Once the filters are registered with the system, under the capture device of VLC, DVBSource filter will show up as a capture device for video capturing. Please see Appendix 8.1 to setup VLC with the cards and directshow Filters. VLC can be downloaded from Windows Expression Encoder for Windows DirectShow Filters can be used with Windows Express Encoders to display, capture or broadcast a HD-SDI stream via a compressed format. Once the filters are registered with the system, DVBSource filter will show up as a device which can be used as a source for video capturing and broadcasting. Please see Appendix to how to setup VLC with the cards. Please contact Microsoft for more information about Expression Encoder availability.

10 Page 10 of Mplayer for Linux Mplayer can be used display HD-SDI stream on the computer monitor. MPlayer uses FFMPEG to decode the HD-SDI and display them. Both Mplayer and FFMPEG are free applications can be downloaded and modified. Source code is available under GPL license agreement.. To display HD-SDI stream on the computer monitor. Please use the following command. For 1080i:./mplayer -demuxer rawvideo rawvideo w=1920:h=1080:fps=23.98:format=uyvy:size= vf scale=1280:-3 -v /dev/sdivideorx0 For 720p:./mplayer -demuxer rawvideo rawvideo w=1280:h=720:fps=59.94:format=uyvy:size= vf scale=1280:-3 -v /dev/sdivideorx0 You can download them from the following websites: DVEO website: Development mirror: 4.4 Upgrade firmware and change transfer direction How to upgrade the firmware in Windows There are two ways toupgrade upgrade firmware in Windows: By using a GUI interface - Select DVB firmware update tool from Start All Programs Windows Master Driver. By using DOS command line Type ProgXsvf [firmware s file name] - After the upgrade is completed. Turn off the machine, discount power for 30 seconds for firmware change to taken effect How to upgrade Firmware in Linux - Please follow the instructions in the REAMDE to upgrade the firmware How to change the transfer directions. - To change transfer direction. Please contact support for the firmware that corresponding to the transfer direction and flash the card with firmware. 5. How does the card, driver and application work together The card driver enables the features that is programmed by the hardware via firmware to transfer the incoming HD-SDI streams from the cards to the machine memory. The hardware will not able to transfer the stream if the stream is not one of the following video formats.

11 Page 11 of Video format support table. 1080p 1080i 720p 480i VANC support RAW QuadPort H/I QuadPort H/I QuadPort H/I QuadPort H/I V210 V201i QuadPort H/I, Input Output QuadPort H/I, Input Output QuadPort H/I, Input Output QuadPort H/I, Input Output QuadPort H/I, Input Output QuadPort H/I, Input Output Input VidPort SD/HD Output Input Output Input Output Input Output NOTE: The Vidport card does not de-interlace, therefore, the i format video will result in a split screen when the video is showing on the computer screen. After the driver is installed, applications can be used to copy the streams to disk or memory and additional operation can be performed to extract additional data or convert them. Vidport cards and driver will not perform those operations; additional development will be required for those operations. 5.2 HD Cameras and camcorders VidPort and QuadPort cards only woks with camera or camcorder that output HD-SDI streams. There are usually two types of HD-SDI the camera will output. - First is RAW format. This an uncompressed format. The bitrate is Gbps, this stream will provide everything included by the source, including null color space. - Then the compressed format, there is either V210 or V210i format. These formats will have a bitrate between 700 Mbps to 1.0 Gbps, depending on the video format. These two formats will still provide the HD streams, however, some auxiliary data might be compressed to save space. NOTE: some lower end camera will output video at 480i format, that is the same as a SDI video, but it is only support by the Input card. 5.3 Encoding and Decoding HD-SDI There is a free Linux encoder and decoder called FFMPEG. Which is a very powerful tool that can decode and encode HD-SDI streams. This tool is intended for advanced users and operators who wish to include this application into their code. Please read document OP-TM-FFLN for detail instructions and commands. 5.4 Vertical ancillary data (VANC) VANC is support by the Vidport and QuadPort cards. It is not enabled by default. by using the driver or the API. It can be enabled With Linux OS: Use the sdivideocfg -a /dev/sdivideorx[channe number] command to enable the VANC flag and inform the hardware to keep the VANC data while transferring data.

12 Page 12 of 29 With Windows: Flags can be set by the driver; however this is usually used by developers who will integrate the API in the development application. Please see section 6 for more details. 6. API development Currently, API is available for two platforms: Windows and Linux. The following table provides a brief description of what kind of API is available for which OS Windows 32 bit Windows 64 bit Linux 32 bit Linux 64 bit I O QuadPort H/i Driver, API, Directshow and TestBed Sample code available Driver, API, Directshow and TestBed Sample code available Driver, Driver source code, API and sample code available Driver, Driver source code, API and sample code available Driver, API and TestBed Sample code available Driver, API and TestBed Sample code available Driver, Driver source code, API and sample code available Driver, Driver source code, API and sample code available Driver, API, Directshow and TestBed Sample code available Driver, API and Sample code available Driver, Driver source code, API and sample code available Driver, Driver source code, API and sample code available 6.1 Windows API Windows API is available with each of the following Programming language - Windows API and sample code: Visual C++ with Visual Studio TestBed sample code: Visual C++ with visual Studio DirectShow sample code: Visual C++ with Visual Studio 2010 The interaction between driver and the API are done through a header file alled dvbioctl.h. The header files, it provides the command and functions to make high level function calls and also make low level hardware calls to registers to enable or disable features provided by the hardware. Windows API (also called Sync API) provides a complete package of sample codes with a full design GUI, required DLL and Library. This API uses synchronous transfer technology. For detail information about how the API works and usage with each DLL. Obtain a copy of the Windows API and the reference manual Synchronous API Technical Reference Manual. TestBed: Provides a sample code and GUI self diagnostic tool to verify if the driver is installed and incoming stream is valid. TestBed provides a simple I/O operation example of the card and driver. To obtain the sample code, please contact your distributor. DirectShow sample code: This example code shows how the card will work Microsoft DirectX technology. 6.3 Linux API

13 Page 13 of 29 Linux API and example codes: C The Linux driver and API/example code are written in C language. The driver and sample code are completely free under GPL license. All of the APIs are available for download from the following websites: DVEO website: Development mirror: 7. Web Conferencing 8. Troubleshooting The following are some of the errors might be occurring while operating the card. Unable to install driver, the driver installer does not support the computer language Currently, the driver installer support English language. Please install the driver manually by using the device manager. Unable to open Capture Device DirectShow Filters This error might be due to the wrong capture device selection. Select DVBSource as the capture device. Getting error message unable to register filters, required module is not found in Windows XP This error occurs when trying to register filter in Windows XP only works with Windows 7. Please use when using Windows XP. The video shown in VLC Is 16:9 not 4:3 in Widescreen format This is not an error, VLC will automatically scale the incoming video according to the monitor information. Try use the scale function with VLC to set the screen size. There is no audio from the incoming stream There are no possible reason for this issue: 1. To use audio, the Audio device need to be captured with DvbAudioSrc filter, select the DvbAudioSrc as the Audio capture device. 2. VidPort or QuadPort card can only capture audio that is embedded with the HD-SDI stream. Some sources would have a separate output for audio itself, that audio will need to be mixed or captured with another device. There are no devices listed under the device manager This error is most likely a hardware error; make sure the card is seated properly. Contact your distributor for more information. Getting error message unable to register filter, a side-by-side error has occurred This error is caused by a corrupted Microsoft Visual C SP1 Redistributable Package. Please re-

14 Page 14 of 29 install the package by download a clean version at Unable to see any incoming video from the source via DirectShow sample application Check if the computer has 4GB or more RAM. If it does, then lower the available for Windows under 4GB. (That can be done by run msconfig command and then check under the Boot.ini section, the advanced section will allow user to change the available RAM for the system) 9. Appendix 8.1 VLC setup For detail instructions, please read document OP-TM-VLCW Install the latest version of VLC player from Launch VLC player. Under the Media Menu, open Capture Device menu as shown in figure 3.1 Figure Under Device selection section, select DVBSource capture for the Video Device name and DVBAudioSrc capture for the Audio Device name. 3.4 Before start playing out the video, it is suggested to configure the device. Click on the configure button to configure the filter properties. 3.5 For video configurations, please check the following list or verify with figure 3.2. Click on O.K' when it is done.

15 Page 15 of 29 Channel number: 0 = first video channel, 2 = second video channel, 4 = third video channel. If the video frame is 29.9 fps, please check the 29.9 fps checkbox. TV mode: Select the appropriate resolution mode provided by the source. HDSDI video mode = UYUVdi HDSDI audio mode = 16bit 2CH Video and Audio Option both = 0x00 SDI 10-bit mode is unchecked. Video buffer size = 0x Audio buffer size = 0x2000 Video number of buffers = 40 or 80 Audio number of buffers = 20 Figure For Audio configuration, for audio configuration, verify the settings match those in Figure 3.3. Click OK or Apply to confirm settings.

16 Page 16 of 29 Figure Click on Play button to view the incoming HD-SDI stream on the screen Setup VLC to capture transcoded HD-SDI stream. 4.1 Under the Media Menu, select Convert/Save 4.2 Select the Capture Device Tab 4.3 Capture mode should be DirectShow. Under Device selection section, select the Video Device name as DVBSource ; select the Audio Device name DVBAudioSrc. 4.4 Configure the DirectShow like section Click on convert/save. It will bring a configuration page to save the file. Leave the source section alone. On the Destination file field, type the desired file name and extension. In the settings section, select the pre-setup profile, as shown in figure 4.1. User can create a new profile based on different Video Codec by click on the new profile button (the button on the right of the red x button). Use video and audio Codec tab to configure the bitrate and frame rate as shown in figure 4.2. Click on save button to save the custom profile. NOTE: using custom profiles is recommended for advanced users only.

17 Page 17 of 29 Figure 4.1 Figure After configuration is completed, click on the Start button to start Converting/Saving HD-SDI streams. The converted file has a bitrate of 800 kbps by default. Setup VLC for streaming transcoded HD-SDI streaming through Network or other means. 5.1 Under the Media Menu, select Streaming. 5.2 Select the Capture Device tab. 5.3 Capture mode should be DirectShow. Under Device selection section, select the Video Device name as

18 Page 18 of 29 DVBSource ; select the Audio Device name DVBAudioSrc. 5.4 Configure the DirectShow like section Window named Stream Output will show up. Leave the Source section alone. Click on the Destination bar. A section like figure 5.1 will show up. Under the Destination section, select the new destination and then click on add. In this example, we will configure the destination to RTP. Figure Select RTP as the destination and click on add. Figure 5.2 would appear on the screen. Enter the destination IP address in the address field (in this example we used a multicast IP address : ). Enter the port number for the IP. (Leave audio and video port as -1). Select the profile for transcoding or create a new file as described in section 4.6. Then click on next.

19 Page 19 of 29 Figure The next screen is the Options page. There is no need to change anything on this page. For Time-to-Live (TTL) settings, please consult your system administrator for the recommended settings. Verify all the options. Click on the Stream button. The final screen should be like figure 5.3

20 Page 20 of 29 Figure 5.3 Once streaming has started, VLC can be used on remote computers to view the streamed files. The Convert/Save option can be used to record a stream transmitted over the network. Please consult VLC help for more information or support on recording streamed content to disk. 6) Discussion and observations. 6.1 A powerful computer will be required for encoding a H.264/AVC stream. The computers used for this document is a Quad-Core system with an average CPU load of 15% while VLC is encoding a standard H.264 file. The CPU load will vary depending on the system load such as if there are other applications running. NOTE: Standard H.264/AVC stream has a bitrate of 0.8 Mbps. The rate can be changed by follow the steps in section If a QuadPort H/i card is used, more than one encoding session can be run at same time. Make sure video and audio channels are configured separately for driver and in directshow. 6.3 A high quality video card is recommended to view the incoming stream on the computer system. The video card used for this Memo is specified in section 1. Any video card with similar or better specifications can be used instead. The amount of hard disk space required will depend on both the type of codec used as well as on the length of the encoding. It is recommended to have a minimum of 500 GB available for storage. 6.5 Viewing, trans-coding, capturing or encoding all can be done via command line also. Every selection and command used in VLC can be translated to a command line. For example, to view HD-SDI streams through directshow, use the following command to launch VLC: vlc :dshowvdev=dvbsource Capture :dshow-adev=dvbsource Capture For more information, please visit VLC online command line help page Microsoft also provides a free encoder called Microsoft Media Encoder (MME) which can be perform the same function as VLC. However, MME can only encode video into WMV format and can only broadcast through MMR protocol. For more information, please refer to the "Using Microsoft Expression Encoder to view, capture and stream HD-SDI streams using Vidport' Memo available from you distributor.

21 Page 21 of Windows Expression Encoder setup 3.1 Download and install the latest version of Express Encoder. 3.2 Launch Expression Encoder and select Live Broadcasting Project from the Load a new project window. Figure A window similar to figure 3.2 will be displayed with the sections given below: - Live Source: Interact with the input hardware source - Preview: A preview window displays the incoming video - File Source: If the source for broadcasting is from a file source - Presets: The Pre-selected Codec settings Microsoft Expression Encoder Provides - Encode: Configure the type of Encode and quality of output file

22 Page 22 of 29 Figure To encode using the VidPort or QuadPort card, Live Source must be used. Click on Add Live Source in the Preview section see Figure 3.3. This will bring up a Live Source Cue window also shown in Figure 3.3. The Live source window, presents active drop down menus labeled Video Device and Audio Device and will have DVBSource Capture filter listed, select this filter. NOTE: Selecting the filter will cause the application to automatically connect to the filter and will attempt to show the incoming stream on the default channel.

23 Page 23 of 29 Figure To verify the video filter setting click the Confgure button to view the filter properties window, it should be setup as given below. Click O.K when setup is completed. NOTE: the "disable audio pin" must be checked. If the disable audio pin is not selected, the application will pop-up with a "can't create device, the device might be used by another program" error message. Figure 3.4 illustrates the Video DvbSource filter properties window. - Channel numbers: 0 = first video channel, 1= first audio channel, 2 = second video channel, 3 = second audio channel, 4 = third video channel, 5= third audio channel, 6 = fourth video channel and 7 = fourth audio channel. - If the video frame is 29.9 fps, check off the 29.9 fps box. - TV mode: Select resolution that corresponds to the source. - HDSDI video mode = UYUVdi - Disable Audio Pin = checked - HDSDI audio mode = 16bit 2CH - Video and Audio Option both = 0x00 - SDI 10-bit mode is unchecked. - Video buffer size = 0x Audio buffer size = 0x Video number of buffers = 40 or 80 - Audio number of buffers = 20 - Major Type = Video and SubType = Mpeg

24 Page 24 of 29 Figure To verify the Audio filter properties, click the Configure button of the Audio Device. The settings should be as shown on Figure Click Apply and OK buttons to confirm settings.

25 Page 25 of 29 Figure This completes configuration of DirectShow Filter 1) Setup for broadcasting and archiving 4.1 With the Capture Devices configured as discussed in section 3. Click the "Cue a live or file source" link. Note: The "Start" button on the bottom of the interface is not enabled unless appropriate Presets are configured. 4.2 The Presets section provides a list of available configurations, Standard Encoding or Widescreen Encoding, as shown in Figure 4.1. Make an appropriate selection. These pre-selected encoding settings are set to broadcast or push streams. In our test setup we used IIS smooth Streaming to encode a stream with H.264/MP4 codec.

26 Page 26 of 29 Figure To customize the pre-selected video and audio quality for a selected Presets, use the Encode tab located on the lower right hand side, Figure 4.2. Here, user can change some of the frequently changing settings highlighted below: - Output format: Windows Media or IIS Smooth Streaming format. - Video Codec: VC-1 or H Audio format: WMA or WMA pro - Bitrate: Bitrate and resolution of the file.

27 Page 27 of 29 Figure Finally, click on the Output tab to configure the output options. There are two options available for streaming and one option for file archiving as shown in figure Broadcasting: This feature will send the output stream to every computer on the subnet. - Push to a publishing point: This feature will push the encoded stream to a Windows Media Server, where it can broadcast or multi-cast to a group of computers. - File archiving: This feature will save the encoded file to disk. The file will be saved in Windows Media Video (WMV) format.

28 Page 28 of 29 Figure With the Presets and Output option configured the Start button will now become available to begin encoding. With the configuration completed, click the "Start" button to start converting and/or saving the HD-SDI streams. The converted output file will have a default bit rate of 800K. The statistics tab provides detailed stream, computer and network information during the encoding process. 2) View broadcast streams on remote computers 5.1 There are two ways to view the broadcasted stream on a remote computer: a) Using Internet Explorer, open a Internet browser and type "mms://[ip address of the broadcasting computer]:[port number]" in the URL. The broadcasted streams will be displayed via Windows Media Player. b) Using VLC, Open VLC and select "Open Network Stream" and specify mms as the user protocol. Enter the IP

29 Page 29 of 29 address of the broadcasting computer and VLC will start playing out the broadcasted streams. 6) Discussion and observations. 6.1 A powerful computer will be required for encoding a H.264/VC stream. The computer used for testing was a Quad-Core systems, average CPU load on the processor while Microsoft Expression Encoder is encoding a high bit rate VC-1 file is around 25% and for a H.264 file is around 30%. The CPU load will vary depending on whether any other applications are also running. NOTE: Standard H.264/AVC stream has a bitrate of 0.8 Mbps. The rate can be changed as discussed in the section If a QuadPort H/I card is used then more than one instances of Encoder will be needed. And the filter properties for each of these instances will need to pre-configured to match the appropriate channel number as Microsoft Expression Encoder always tries to connect to the default channel when a source is selected 6.3 A high quality video card is recommended to view the incoming stream on the computer system. The video card used for testing listed in section 1 is an example; any video card with the similar or better specifications can be used. 6.4 The size of the hard disk required will depend on both the type of codec used as well as on the length of the encoding. It is recommended to have a minimum of 500 GB available for storage. 6.6 VLC VideoLan Player is another application that can be used to encode HD-SDI streams, it doesn t have the capabilities to display a lot of statistics, however its easier to configure and provides more encoding options.. For more information, refer to white paper Using VLC to view, capture and stream HD-SDI streams using VidPort or QuadPort cards