Hardware encoding still planned?

[AverageUser]

Do you still have HW encoding in your roadmap?
This is really a killer feature, I’ve seen a few apps that support HW codecs and they work a little better, but my heart belongs to spacedesk software… Your software has really saved me and provided amazing ways to do my job, but me + a huge percentage of your audience are really in expectation of improving performance and reducing over-reliance on wireless quality.

[AverageUser]

P.S
Of course, I am speaking about Android version of spacedesk

[inertia]

This would be good for the windows client if you can use HW accelerated x265 or x265 encoding on Windows PC.

[inertia]

Although, on my network I am not noticing any latency with 1920 resolution and 60fps in full colour.

[spacedesk Christian]

Hi @averageuser, @inertia,

h264 Hardware Encoding will definitely be released rather sooner than later. Internally we have it already working on Windows Viewer. Why isn’t it prioritized higher? It only benefits users with high end graphics adapters and requirements. For the majority of users with average GPUs and scenarios there is no performance gain compared to our current MJPEG software encoding.
Also we still have to design which encoding type (hardware/software) should be dafault on which kind of machines and how to present different options to the user.

[AverageUser]

@spacedesk-christian I don’t quite believe that you don’t know anything about the market share of h264 hardware codecs, take a look at Nvidia’s codec support matrix – all modern GPUs support h264, even older graphics cards like the 750ti or gt1030. Well, you can say that this is not your core audience, but… Intel HD Graphics 620 works in h264 and even h265, as does Amd Radeon Graphics.
But most importantly, snapdragons from 810 are supporting h265!
Currently, no one is talking about the possibility of encoding/decoding in h264 format, because it is outdated… AV1 is entering the market in huge strides, so the software should also be ready for new technology, sometimes just to show, that you are working on product.
I love Spacedesk software, so I would like to see progress in the development of such an important part as the fundamental video processing capabilities! Turn on modern codecs not by default, but as an experimental feature – collect statistics and celebrate.
I just want to point out that the processing of applications was scheduled for 2024, but time is running out.
Best wishes to you, support dude <3

[spacedesk Marcel]

You did not listen to what Christian was saying:
– We DO HAVE hardware encoding (h264) up and running experimentally (but not released)
– NO PERFORMANCE GAIN by hardware encoding for more than 80% of spacedesk users
– On some of the GPUS you mention, our current software encoding performs way better
– Release for less than 20% of the users needs to be precisely targeted

Don’t confuse users whith such a non-applicable statement:
“…no one is talking about… h264 format, because it is outdated….”
(public common knowledge quoted in the wrong context without understanding)

THIS IS TRUE ONLY for REGULAR STREAMING applications (e.g. Netflix)
No time limit for encoding in a studio.

THIS IS COMPLETE NONSENSE for REAL TIME STREAMING applications (e.g. spacedesk, Miracast, etc.)
Need superfast encoding to avoid immediately visible lag.

For REAL TIME STREAMING applications like spacedesk hardware encoding (typically h264/265) is still too slow on the vast majority of current GPUs in the market. CPU accelerated encoding can still perform better. Look: Today, in REAL TIME hardware encoding there isn’t much of a difference between h265, h264 and even MPEG2 (predecessor of the alledgedly outdated h264). That’s why e.g. Miracast until today still uses MPEG2 for hardware encoding.

PS: You might also want to understand the bottleneck in spacedesk is REAL TIME ENCODING performance – not DECODING. Thus it is not relevant what news you read in the press about fancy hardware accelerated DECODING.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 1 week ago by spacedesk Marcel.
• This reply was modified 7 months, 1 week ago by spacedesk Marcel.
• This reply was modified 7 months, 1 week ago by spacedesk Marcel.

[effleurager]

I’m more interested in hardware encoding to reduce CPU load, particularly since I use 24-bit 4:4:4 encoding. Have your experiential builds shown progress in that regard?

[spacedesk Marcel]

We have hardware encoding on the shelf. We can release with very little effort. But most of our users use 4:2:0 encoding on Intel GPU. In these cases HW encoding isn’t any gain.
Which GPU are you using? What is your application? Why do you need 4:4:4 encoding? Why do you want to reduce CPU load? To run some other software (improve performance of some other software) or to improve performance of spacedesk?
Maybe your requirement can help us targeting specific use cases for hardware encoding…

• This reply was modified 4 months, 4 weeks ago by spacedesk Marcel.
• This reply was modified 4 months, 4 weeks ago by spacedesk Marcel.
• This reply was modified 4 months, 4 weeks ago by spacedesk Marcel.

[effleurager]

I’m using a Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti, with the goal of encoding with as little visual loss of quality (which I still notice with all the settings set to their maximum). This runs over a 5 Gbps USB link, directly connected to the GPU.
I’m looking to reduce CPU load to improve the performance of other software, as it is highly CPU-bound.

[spacedesk Marcel]

Did you notice that spacedesk is always showing a 4:4:4 high quality frame after the image has settled to a still image (even when settings are 4:2:0)?
Is this not good enough for you? If it isn’t then why do you need 4:4:4 color depth on a moving image? In most cases the eye can only detect the difference on a still image, but not a moving image.
Can you tell more about your application? E.g. why do you need 4:4:4? What’s the application that needs so much CPU? etc.etc.etc.

[AverageUser]

@spacedesk-marcel
If HW coding is ready, please just release it as a beta/experimental feature that can be enabled in the settings.
You’ll gather feedback from enthusiasts and won’t interfere with regular users. I’ve used the Spacedesk alternative with HW encoding and the difference for me is noticeable:
latency is lower, network requirements are less (95 Mbps vs 25-50 Mbps [same video file]).
But spacedesk has some QoL features and I’m a fan of your product, so I use it and want to see it evolve, not recommend alternatives.

[Author]

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