CineForm HDMI Recorder Concept Posted

[Munim Tarafdar]

I take it that you used a dual core 1.6 ghz atom cpu?

[Alex Raskin]

No, I think David already commented that Atoms are still below the processing power needed for Cineform processing.

Mine is Intel 2.6Ghz

[David Newman]

I'm am interested in trying the new DDR3 Dual Core Atoms (e.g N455) More memory bandwidth with a better dual core implementation might do the trick.

[Munim Tarafdar]

Alex did you use a mobo cpu or the full beans desktop cpu?

[Lawrence Bansbach]

So, is the sub-$2K CineForm recorder officially dead? CineDeck seems nice, but it's more than four time the price.

[David Newman]

Never off the table. Remember we are a software company, we will happily license the technology to any company capable of building it, when we proposed it, we where working with a harware partner but they didn't survive the market down-turn. We have priced out the build cost, two years ago to make sub-$2K partical, still good today. Just need another partner. New partners like CineDeck and 1Beyond use our software encoder, to get to the size and price point we want will require CineForm based hardware encoder (unless Intel Atom processors get a tad faster.)

[Bill Strehl]

Originally Posted by David Newman

I'm am interested in trying the new DDR3 Dual Core Atoms (e.g N455) More memory bandwidth with a better dual core implementation might do the trick.

Check out this links that talks about the performance of the new AMD Zacate APU which appears to outperform an Intel Core i5-520M at 2.4 GHz:
AMD's Zacate APU Performance Update - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

The Zacate chips only draws 18 watts! Sweet!!

[Munim Tarafdar]

Hi David just sent you a PM
Let me know what your thoughts.

[Bill Strehl]

Originally Posted by Bill Strehl

Check out this links that talks about the performance of the new AMD Zacate APU which appears to outperform an Intel Core i5-520M at 2.4 GHz:
AMD's Zacate APU Performance Update - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

The Zacate chips only draws 18 watts! Sweet!!

Here is a link to the first mini-itx board with the new chip. It is a Gigabyte motherboard. There was no release date mentioned in the article but another site mentions Q1 of 2011.
Gigabyte to Offer Overclocking Functionality for Fusion Zacate Platform - X-bit labs

[Paul Cook]

So any news on this front at all David? I cant believe a company like Atmos Enter The Ninja can bring their ProRes HDMI recorder to market at such a low price yet there remains nothing like it with the amazing cross platform CineForm codec??

Surely similar technology that drives this device would be able to be used with a CineForm codec? Or is it simply that the licensing costs of CineForm software would mean no recorder would ever get close to a price point like the Ninja?

As far as I can tell transcoding is going the way of the dodo - everywhere you look these days its all about direct to edit. It would be a real shame if CineForm aren't paying attention to this industry trend.

[David Newman]

Our licensing is not expensive, we are looking to put the CineForm codec everywhere. Come see us at NAB, while we are not announcing a hardware recorder, there are cool things happening.

[Bill Strehl]

For PC users who use Adobe CS 5 and above here is a preview to a new Zotac board which should be announced next week at Computex:
Zotac's Z68 mini-ITX boards listed for sale in Japan
It is a Z68 based board. With the GeForce GT430 and 1GB of supposedly dedicated video RAM the one expansion port should be able to host an Black Magic Intensity Pro. Couple that with Cineform software and and camera that outputs HDMI and it could be a truly great solution.

[Bill Strehl]

Here is the translation of the akiba website for the Zotac Board:
Z68ITX-WiFi is a relatively orthodox model of the system with a DisplayPort output and 2 HDMI outputs, more wired / wireless LAN, USB 3.0, mSATA also includes configuration. As far as notice that the photo shops, PCI Express x16 slots and expansion slots are DDR3 DIMM slots seem to be equipped with × 2. Cooling mechanism is a combination of heat pipe Fanresutaipu, I / O unit that is attached to the heat sink panel.

On the other hand, is a unique design, Z68 GT430 ITX-WiFi. This product, GeForce GT 430 1GB equipped with additional video memory, four standard screen output (DVI × 2 + HDMI + DisplayPort) that you can. Wired / wireless LAN, USB 3.0, mSATA equipped with such a common but Z68ITX-WiFi, and PCI Express x1 slots and expansion slots are DDR3 SO-DIMM slots seems to be 2 ×. Cooler with fan cooling.

The Z68 Mini-ITX motherboard, considering the functional aspects, such as "strongest spec" will say the configuration, and also very unique products based on GeForce GT 430. Performance features, as well as a small PC screen output if you want another example, the product is likely to miss.

[Bill Strehl]

Originally Posted by David Newman

I've commented on the Atom spec's before in this long thread. Over 12-months ago 1.6Ghz dual Atom would encode 1080p at 16-17fps, with 533MHz FSB. The memory bus is faster now and clocks up a bit, but otherwise that haven't change much in a while. The missing feature to Atom setup is a single PCI-Express lane, so we can feed HDMI in without a big hardware effort. If as can get to 20fps with a PCI-E lane, we can do 24p/30i through SSD buffering -- it is really close.

I wonder if this new motherboard from VIA with a NANO X2 1.4GHz processor might be fast enough. It supports DDR3 memory:
VIA offers $89 processor and motherboard combo for custom HTPCs -- Engadget

I downloaded the manual which states using 1066MHz DDR3 memory ,the FSB operates at 533MHz with a single channel. I couldn't find out the power requirements for the board.

[David Newman]

Seem it has the same speeds as the dual core atom CPU I mentioned in the quoted text.