System Requirements#
easyDCP Player+ comes with a GPU-based JPEG 2000 Codec and a software-based JPEG 2000 Codec. The GPU-based codec is only available for Windows and requires an additional graphics device.
Provided the proper hardware is available, easyDCP Player+ is capable of decoding 2K and 4K DCPs in real-time.
Software-based decoder#
In order to guarantee real-time playback with at least 24 fps, the software-based decoder requires a fast multi-core CPU with at least four cores. It is recommended to download the demo version in order to find out how your system performs.
The scalability of JPEG 2000 encoded images can be exploited to watch a 1K or 0.5K resolution preview in real-time on systems that don’t have a sufficiently powerful CPU. Optionally you can choose to upscale the lower resolution preview to full-screen, without negatively impacting the maximum speed.
GPU-based decoder (Windows only)#
For smooth playback in GPU-based mode, easyDCP Player+ recommends a bundle of two graphics devices - a primary device for rendering (with Vulkan) and a secondary device for video decoding (with NVIDIA® CUDA® [1]). Using a sufficiently powerful graphics device pair, the GPU-based codec can provide real-time playback even for framerates above 24. Both graphics devices should ideally be connected with PCIe x16.
Primary graphics device
This device is dedicated to rendering video and optionally color post-processing, using Vulkan. It is recommended to install the primary device in the mainboard’s top slot. This device does not necessarily need to support the NVIDIA® CUDA® [2] technology.
When a HD-SDI output device is used and the option “image-processing” is activated, images are also rendered with selected subtitles, color transformation and scaled using the primary graphics card, before they are emitted to the HD-SDI device. In this use case, a NVIDIA® Quadro® series graphics card (e.g. Quadro K600) might also be beneficial for a better render performance. Otherwise, a mid-range NVIDIA® GeForce® device, e.g. NVIDIA® GeForce® [3] GTX 750 Ti, is a good choice.
Secondary graphics device
This device is dedicated to the computationally very expensive JPEG 2000 decompression. It should not be used as a video output, i.e. no display should be hooked up to this device. For best performance, this device should be a CUDA®-enabled graphics card (e.g. from the latest NVIDIA® GeForce® series) with many CUDA®-cores installed in the mainboard’s secondary slot. Please refer to www.easydcp.com for a list of supported devices. It should be connected with PCIe x16. PCIe x2, x4 or x8 will lower the performance significantly. Make sure to connect both on-board power connectors to the power supply unit and that the power supply unit meets the system’s requirements.
Footnotes