Nero Adds CUDA to Accelerate Video Encoding

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Nero will soon support GPU-accelerated video encoding in its Nero Move It software.

Nero will soon support GPU-accelerated video encoding in its Nero Move it software.

During CeBIT 2009 this week, Nero announced that it will be providing a free update for users of its Nero Move it software that will add support for Nvidia's CUDA architecture. The addition of Nvidia CUDA technology will give systems that are equipped with a modern Nvidia GPU a massive boost in the speed of which the software performs video encoding.

"Nero Move it empowers users to take control of their video, music, and photo libraries. By utilizing Nvidia CUDA technology, and the subsequent accelerated video encoding time, we have made it even easier and faster for consumers to freely move their content between their mobile devices," said Charly Lippoth, CTO of Nero.

According to Nero, a task such as transcoding a high-definition video to an iPod compatible format will go from taking hours, down to taking just minutes.  Better yet, Nero states that there should be an even greater time savings seen when high-definition content is created using the H.264 video compression format standard.  With a growing number of digicams now supporting HD video recording, often in crazy non-standard formats, being able to quickly convert such HD video clips to a useful standard format would be great.

Unfortunately, although Nero was previewing the latest version of Nero Move it at CeBIT 2009, the update that will enable Nvidia CUDA support will not be released until April 2009. Furthermore, it does not seem like computer systems equipped with just an ATI- or Intel-based graphics solution will be benefiting from this update.  Older Nvidia graphics solutions that do not support Nvidia CUDA technology seem to also be out of luck with this update and users with entry-level Nvidia graphics solution may not see the same performance gains as systems with faster Nvidia GPUs.

The Nero Move it software supports a wide range of video, music and photos formats, as well as a long list of mobile media devices and online communities.  The software allows users to import, organize, convert, view and export digital media of virtually all format types and provides free updates when a new format becomes available.  The software is currently available online for as low as $29.99, although a 15-day trial is available for free.

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Steve Seguin

Steve Seguin was a freelance news analyst and writer for Tom's Hardware and Tom's Guide. Since then, he has become Chief Innovation Officer at Stage Ten, an interactive live streaming site. He has also founded and created his own AI and streaming products, and enjoys making videos for his YouTube channel.

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14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • liemfukliang
    How about Nero Recode? Does it also support CUDA?
    Reply
  • skittle
    No thanks, its already been proven that GPU accelerated encoders (The ATI encoder and Badaboom) suck.


    a task such as transcoding a high-definition video to an iPod compatible format will go from taking hours, down to taking just minutes.

    My Q6600 + x264 can already do this.
    Reply
  • TheFace
    Thanks skittle for your insightful input. Programming for these GPUs in Brook+ or CUDA is difficult and still in early stages. Hence early encoders will not be all they have promised. That doesn't mean that an encoder developed by NERO, one of the foremost encoding/transcoding/decoding for video companies will be bad, but to take the news with a grain of salt is probably recommended. In other words, your flaming lacks anything insightful to have been worth the time to write it.

    Personally, I am hopeful that they can take advantage of the GPU power in the encoding process. I hope that CUDA is just a first step and that they are moving on to OpenCL so that all (new) cards will eventually be supported.
    Reply
  • Mr_Man
    users with entry-level Nvidia graphics solution may not see the same performance gains as systems with faster Nvidia GPUs. Nah, you think?
    Reply
  • lejay
    skittleNo thanks, its already been proven that GPU accelerated encoders (The ATI encoder and Badaboom) suck.My Q6600 + x264 can already do this.No, it can't.
    Reply
  • Harby
    skittleNo thanks, its already been proven that GPU accelerated encoders (The ATI encoder and Badaboom) suck.
    So you're saying that because 2 programs don't work that well the foundation sucks? I mean, all those programs (all 2 of them!) are clearly the pinnacle of CUDA evolution and will never be surpassed.

    /sarcasm off
    Reply
  • skittle
    Dark Shikari (one of the two main devs of x264) over on #x264 has been quoted many times saying that there are no real benefits of using the GPU.

    Those encoders barely use the GPU anyway, the ATI encoder for example falls back on ffmpeg 90+% of the time.

    The only real benefit GPUs have is in the decoding process, which if your encoding AVC->AVC helps alot. Let your GPU do the decoding (DGAVCindex/decode), and feed that to x264.
    Reply
  • skittle
    LeJayNo, it can't.
    If I turn down x264 to the quality of the ATI/badaboom encoders I can easily achieve over 200fps. Thats roughly 10minutes for a 90 minute 23.97fps film.
    Reply
  • Icester
    I think what skittles means is that so far all the GPU based encoders suck - at least for quality of output (a point that I don't think anyone can disagree with). It is very disappointing that none of the developers took the time to make better encoders, instead they have given the GPU encoder idea a pretty big, ugly black eye. I think more than anything is proved that taking advantage of the GPU for complex tasks is more difficult than initially anticipated.

    I think everyone will remain skeptical until someone pulls it off and I do hope that Nero does it. I definitely _do_ think that it can be done. I am very surprised that it has taken this long and still no tangible results.
    Reply
  • tenor77
    1. Bout time
    2. Why isn't Nero standing on trial next to the Pirate Bay guys? I mean their software can be used to break the law right? Oh wait, that's right because they're not responsible for the actions of the end user. If only they applied this logic universally.
    Reply