Cyberlink MediaShow Expresso Overview
(Courtesy of Cyberlink)
Cyberlink MediaShow Expresso video conversion software is being marketed as a “hassle-free solution for converting all your favorite videos for playback on iPhone, PSP, Xbox, YouTube and more”. The user interface is so simple that the only input consumers will need to make is choosing their preferred media player or medium and then click the start button to let Expresso transcode their videos. The built-in profiles make adding custom settings to transcode each video type a non-issue and something novice video users will use and appreciate.
Initial startup page with flash tool tip
While Cyberlink MediaShow Expresso doesn’t have all the video editing features of applications like PowerDirector 7 and vReveal, it’s prowess lies in it’s ability to expeditiously transcode video and utilize a system’s hardware to its fullest capacity. Expresso is “optimized” to work with Intel’s Core i7 platform as well as ATI Stream and CUDA respectively. Like most GPGPU apps, it leverages the combined performance of the CPU and GPU to convert files quickly and efficiently.
Main screen
The first screen after closing the tool tip pop-up is shown above. As the UI states, users just need to drag and drop their video files (or entire folders full of videos) and Expresso give them options for transcoding their video to different video formats that are shown in the top right-hand corner of the screen. The main video formats listed are for Apple, Sony, Microsoft, and YouTube. Each company has different video formats that are compatible with different devices like the iPhone, Zune, and PSP.
Preferences menu
Clicking on the coffee mug in the top left-hand corner reveals a couple options for importing files into expresso, showing tips on using the program, and configuring user preferences.
General preferences page with concurrent transcode process number drop-down menu
In the preferences sub-menu, there are only two options to configure — UI language and concurrent transcode process number. The language option isn’t as inportant as the concurrent transcode process because that determines how many threads can be run simultaneously during transcoding. Since this program is optimized to support Core i7s, it can transcode up four movies at one time. What is also interesting about this menu is the lack of options for configuring ATI Stream and CUDA settings. It would have been nice to have some more advanced features for video saavy consumers who can tailor Expresso to their individual video requirements.
Conversion menu after right-clicking on imported video clip
We dragged over one of our test clips and right clicked on the video and this is what we are greeted with. It’s basically the same options available in the top navigation bar, but in a different format. I actually like these quick links to choose which video format I want to output our test clip to, and it covers every preset as well as the ability to create other formats that don’t fall under Apple, Microsoft, Sony, or YouTube.
Apple video conversion menu
Converting video to various iPod formats is quick and easy because Expresso has several preset configurations for different types of iPods including the iPhone. Users can also enable hardware acceleration in this screen to get a boost from ATI Stream or CUDA.
Sony video conversion menu
Here’s a quick shot of the Sony device conversion menu. There are only two video output options – PSP and Playstation 3. The Playstation 3 profile allows users to output high resolution video at 1920 resolutions.
Microsoft video conversion menu
As with the other conversion screens we’ve presentation above, Expresso also have preset profiles for users who want to output video files for their Microsoft Zunes. The same features are available in this menu as in the other vendor profiles.
YouTube video conversion menu
The last vendor-based profile users can convert their videos with is the YouTube conversion menu. Users can create several different formats that will transfer over to YouTube seamlessly. Users can also upload their files after Expresso is done transcoding their output video files.
Other formats video conversion menu
For those users who want a little more flexibility in how their video is transcoded, Expresso included a custom menu for outputting custom video files. This screen has presets for MPEG4, MPG2, and WMV file formats. Users can create custom file names as well as set the output location for their video files.
Expresso video playback screen
Here’s a quick shot of an finished video file being viewed in Expresso’s video playback screen. It has a simple UI for pausing, rewinding, fast forwarding, and changing the volume. It also uses the GPU to help accelerate playback, which keeps it from lagging or skipping during playback.
Please change the tile.
Your
Please change the tile.
Your article is not about a comparison of Stream and CUDA performance, it is the difference between two software implementations utilising Stream and CUDA.
These technologies allow you to parallelise your algorithms, to imply that one technology performs ,as you essentially say, ‘better quality maths’ than the other is ignorant.
Please do not misdirect readers like this.
Regards.
Joe Bloggs
Please change you word.
Your
Please change you word.
Your comment is not about a reply to the article, it is a quantification of how butthurt you are.
These new breakthrows allow us to see how badly you are spell ,as you essentially try to use ‘larger words’ but not good at English.
Please do not obfuscate readers’ thoughtings like this.
Regards.
Bloe Joggs
damn dude, look at your own
damn dude, look at your own english, it’s absolutely dreadful!
Ya dude, your an idiot, your
Ya dude, your an idiot, your article is misleading. For sure!
Peace
Hater Bater Fuck Face
SO MUCH HATE !
SO MUCH HATE !
You are comparing two cards,
You are comparing two cards, one is nearly a year older than the other one, its elementary that the new one is going to win. This review is biased
Why are you not comparing the
Why are you not comparing the same frame in the outputs? How can you do a comparison of different frames and make a decision on differences in quality?
My personal gaming research
My personal gaming research team has found nVIDIA’s CUDA technology to be superior, but they compared current GPUs, not GPUs with a manufacturing time gap.
This is a very interesting
This is a very interesting article to contribute to my PC Hardware class, as I’m currently in a Network Admin program in Vermont. Please keep up the good work guys I love your site, and you have been very helpful over the last several semesters.
For BitCoin Minners AMD GPUs
For BitCoin Minners AMD GPUs faster than Nvidia GPUs!
Why?
Firstly, AMD designs GPUs with many simple ALUs/shaders (VLIW design) that run at a relatively low frequency clock (typically 1120-3200 ALUs at 625-900 MHz), whereas Nvidia’s microarchitecture consists of fewer more complex ALUs and tries to compensate with a higher shader clock (typically 448-1024 ALUs at 1150-1544 MHz). Because of this VLIW vs. non-VLIW difference, Nvidia uses up more square millimeters of die space per ALU, hence can pack fewer of them per chip, and they hit the frequency wall sooner than AMD which prevents them from increasing the clock high enough to match or surpass AMD’s performance. This translates to a raw ALU performance advantage for AMD:
An old AMD Radeon HD 6990: 3072 ALUs x 830 MHz = 2550 billion 32-bit instruction per second
A New Nvidia GTX 590: 1024 ALUs x 1214 MHz = 1243 billion 32-bit instruction per second
This approximate 2x-3x performance difference exists across the entire range of AMD and Nvidia GPUs. It is very visible in all ALU-bound GPGPU workloads such as Bitcoin, password bruteforcers, etc.
Secondly, another difference favoring Bitcoin mining on AMD GPUs instead of Nvidia’s is that the mining algorithm is based on SHA-256, which makes heavy use of the 32-bit integer right rotate operation. This operation can be implemented as a single hardware instruction on AMD GPUs (BIT_ALIGN_INT), but requires three separate hardware instructions to be emulated on Nvidia GPUs (2 shifts + 1 add). This alone gives AMD another 1.7x performance advantage (~1900 instructions instead of ~3250 to execute the SHA-256 compression function).
Combined together, these 2 factors make AMD GPUs overall 3x-5x faster when mining Bitcoins!
Fucking plagerism. Copy/paste
Fucking plagerism. Copy/paste from some other source, no citation or credit. Your education should be shredded and flushed down the toilet. Here is where you copied it from for people who want to read from someone with actual knowledge and not just ctrl+c —> ctrl+v.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Why_a_GPU_mines_faster_than_a_CPU
You plagerized me. I
You plagerized me. I complained about someone else who copied something and posted a link. All you did was change the link. You are a loser and the worst scum on the internet.
Why are we bitching about
Why are we bitching about plagiarism? If i wanted to make sure his info was correct i would’ve looked it up myself. I could care less if it was “plagiarized” as long as the information was correct.