Studio includes hardware encoding and hardware decoding which moves the video processing to a dedicated GPU, greatly reducing your CPU usage while running Studio.
These features are only available on computers with Intel processors that include Quick Sync Video (which are listed here) or have an NVIDIA GeForce card that includes NVENC and NVDEC. We have instructions on how to determine if your computer has an Intel Quick Sync processor or has an NVIDIA card that supports NVENC and NVDEC.
The current line of HD31, Studio One, HD51 HD & 4K, and HD550 HD & 4K appliances all have the required hardware that includes these features.
Computers that do not have the proper hardware installed will not display these features in Studio.
If your system does not have the ability to support Hardware encoding please contact our support team to request a upgrade quote. We are able to upgrade your existing system to meet Livestream Studio hardware encoding requirements.
To enable hardware encoding in Livestream Studio, click the Settings icon in the upper right corner of the interface.
Navigate to the Streaming menu.
At the top of the menu, check Hardware Encoding. Then click Save.
As an example, here is the processor being used on a Windows 10 computer.
The CPU usage when hardware encoding is turned off—streaming a single bitrate averaging 2128kbps, with 2 media bins, and 1 animated graphics overlay—is nearly 100%. The stream timed out after about 1 minute due to lack of resources.
In comparison, the CPU usage with the same workflow while hardware encoding is turned on was cut in half, down to 48%.
To enable hardware decoding, navigate to the Advanced menu in settings. Make sure Enable hardware decoding is checked. This will reduce the CPU resources needed to bring in your camera sources.
