Intel Media SDK FAQ
1/23/2012 - FAQ Updated to reflect changes for the Intel Media SDK 2012 What is the Intel® Media Software Development Kit? The Intel Media SDK is software development library that exposes Intel platforms' industry-leading media acceleration capabilities (encoding, decoding, and transcoding), allowing media developers to implement features that leverage the Intel® Quick Sync Video capabilities. More information can be found in the Intel Media SDK 2012 Product Brief. What are the features of the API? The Intel Media SDK supports encoding for H.264(AVC) and MPEG-2 video, and decoding for MPEG-2 video, VC-1, H.264, and MJPEG formats. The Intel Media SDK provides hardware acceleration when used with supported Intel HW (Intel® GMA 4500HD, Intel® HD Graphics, 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors with Quick Sync Video). Video Encoders H.264, MPEG-2 Video Decoders H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, MJPEG Video Processing Filters Deinterlacing, Inverse Telecine, Resizing, Color Conversion, Scene Change Detection, Denoising, Frame Rate Conversion, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation Control, Sharpening Other features Media Foundation Transforms Custom User-Defined Filters Constant QP Encoding Supported OS Microsoft* Windows* 7 (32 and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows Vista* (32 and 64-bit) Sample Source Console, DirectShow*, Media Foundation*, Transcoding, and GUI based applications Profiles MPEG-2 Profiles: Simple, Main, and High VC1 Profiles: Simple, Main, and Advanced AVC Profiles: Baseline, Main, and High MVC Profiles: Stereo High Frame Types Progressive and Interlaced Color Format NV12 (4:2:0) Rate Control CBR, VBR, AVBR and CQP What are the minimum requirements to use the API? Hardware
IA-32 architecture processors (Intel® CoreTM2 Duo processor or later
200 MB free hard disk space Software Microsoft* Windows* Vista* operating system with Service Pack 2
Microsoft Visual Studio* 2005 with Service Pack 1 (note that the solution files can be easily converted to VS2008 and VS2010)
Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit Update 6.1 for Windows Vista
Graphics driver version 15.13.4.1829 (6/30/2009) or later if using the Intel® G45 Express Chipset or Intel® GM45 Express Chipset. What benefit do I get from using the Intel® MediaSDK? The Intel Media SDK simplifies the complexities of video application programming by encapsulating the specific platform requirements, thus freeing the developer from having to re-address video acceleration in each generation of hardware. In addition to the forward compatible nature of the Intel Media SDK, the API provides the only acceleration methods for hardware assisted encoding on 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors with Quick Sync Video. What's the schedule? The Intel Media SDK 2012 is available today from Intel’s website at www.intel.com/software/mediasdk. What's new in the Media SDK 2012 The Intel Media SDK 2012 release is highly optimized for Intel’s next generation processor, and provides the following new features: Transcode Enhancements Increased Performance Enhanced Quality Easier to use with Opaque Memory Abstraction of system buffer and DirectX* Surface Simplified memory between CPU and Processor Graphics MVC Encode and Decode Stereoscopic 3D Motion JPEG Decode (SW only) Video Conferencing/Streaming Extensions Low Latency Decode and Encode Dynamic Bitrate Control Dynamic Resolution Control Forced Key Frame Generation Reference List Selection Reference Picture Marking Repetition SEI Message Long Term Reference Frame Temporal Scalability New Samples OpenCL Integration Sample Video Conferencing command line application A wide range of new and improved sample code Are there source code examples to learn from? Yes. The Intel Media SDK contains a samples of Console, DirectShow* filters, Media Foundation*, a Transcoding Application and much more. All code is provided in C++. In addition, the Intel Media SDK 2012 now contains debugging tools such as Tracer and System Analyzer to quickly resolve issues in case they arise. Will I have to recompile my code to take advantage to encode/decode acceleration in future Intel® processors? No. The Intel Media SDK interfaces will be supported in future hardware. Just make sure you use the API today and your application will get the benefits of hardware acceleration in future hardware. At any point in time, the API will support current generation, the previous generation, and the next generation platform. Does the Intel Media SDK support Linux or MacOS? Not at this time. The Intel Media SDK supports Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit). Does the Intel Media SDK support Intel® Atom™ based platforms? Currently, the Intel Media SDK supports the mainstream volume PC segment. There is growing interest in Intel® AtomTM based platforms, and Intel is actively exploring plans to support these platforms with the Intel Media SDK, but no announcements have been made yet. Where can I find additional information on how to develop an application using Intel Media SDK? More information about the Intel Media SDK and other Intel developer tools can be found on the Intel Visual Computing Source website. There you can find links to valuable trips and tricks and how to get started developing applications with the Intel Media SDK. The Intel Media Developers Guide, Sample source code, and links to diagnostic and performance tools are all available for download.
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