The x265 HEVC Upgrade

[x265]

Until now, HEVC has been a technology for experts and hard-core video enthusiasts only. MulticoreWare has a fast, reliable HEVC decoder, called UHDcode, but we needed to find a way to make this available for everyone to try. Similarly, x265 was available in source code form, but we didn't have a user-friendly application available.

To make it easier for anyone to try x265 and experience the benefits of HEVC, today we're launching the x265 HEVC Upgrade. We've created a new Windows 64 bit application (the x265 Encoder) that lets you convert MP4 files to HEVC. There is a new Basic Mode which anyone non-technical person should be able to use. In Advanced Mode we expose the full feature set of x265.

The x265 Encoder application is bundled with our UHDcode, our HEVC decoder, packaged as a Windows DirectShow filter (a plug-in for Windows Media Player). This upgrades Windows Media Player (64 bit) to play back HEVC video files (raw bitstreams or MP4 files with HEVC).

The MSRP of the x265 HEVC Upgrade is $29.95, but for a limited time you can download for free at www.x265.com. We hope you find these applications valuable.

[newpball]

Registered, got the product, installed it, entered the license number, then got 'unactivated', tried it again and now it says it reached its maximum limit.

[poisondeathray]

Registered, got the product, installed it, entered the license number, then got 'unactivated', tried it again and now it says it reached its maximum limit.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the post date ? In some parts of the world it's THAT day

[newpball]

Registered, got the product, installed it, entered the license number, then got 'unactivated', tried it again and now it says it reached its maximum limit.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the post date ? In some parts of the world it's THAT day

Not yet in Sunnyvale.

[poisondeathray]

But they have a regional HQ in Denmark!

[x265]

Registered, got the product, installed it, entered the license number, then got 'unactivated', tried it again and now it says it reached its maximum limit.

Hi newpball,
Sorry about that. I'll PM you a key. If you PM me your email address we can check our license activation system to see what went wrong.

[newpball]

Registered, got the product, installed it, entered the license number, then got 'unactivated', tried it again and now it says it reached its maximum limit.

Hi newpball,
Sorry about that. I'll PM you a key. If you PM me your email address we can check our license activation system to see what went wrong.

Thanks for the mail!

Last night I got errors connecting to the authentication server but this morning it worked.

Tried it with default settings on a QHD video, got about 15fps encoding speed (only CPU no GPU) and the resulting file size is slightly over 10% of the original H.264.

[sophisticles]

What am I missing here? These guys take the x264 code base, create an HEVC encoder, now they want to sell you an "upgrade" for $30, an "upgrade" which is the same basic encoder with a software based decoder packaged as a direct show filter that only works with Windows Media Player.

Is that about the long and short of it?

I guess the MCW guys are taking the old adage of "a sucker born every minute" to heart. Of course, as I see there actually is a member of this forum that bought this snake oil.

Just LOL, he goes on about "stuffy old engineers" then spends $30 bucks buying what is available for free, legally elsewhere. Not to mention that video cards have started including hardware hevc decoders and encoders now so I really don't see the need for this "product".

[newpball]

I guess the MCW guys are taking the old adage of "a sucker born every minute" to heart. Of course, as I see there actually is a member of this forum that bought this snake oil.

Just LOL, he goes on about "stuffy old engineers" then spends $30 bucks buying what is available for free, legally elsewhere. Not to mention that video cards have started including hardware hevc decoders and encoders now so I really don't see the need for this "product".

I suggest you read the postings again, perhaps after that you will realize it is free.

[poisondeathray]

Mini review / early benchmarks of CPU decoding performance vs. Lav , comments, etc... of the current release

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1715668#post1715668


For those of you that are too lazy to click or banned from there

All benchmarks were done on a Core i7 4790 with Win x64 8.1 Pro system, using latest DXVA Checker x64 v3.3.2 in Benchmark decode mode.

I used LAV Video x64 v0.64.38 using 16 threads and UHDcode v1.0.5.3/1.0.5.4


1. Girls -1080p60 fps -11Mbps


LAV x64 203/287/370 CPU 70%
UHDcode 140/163/220 CPU 70%


2.Beauty-2160p@30fps-12.3Mbps

LAV x64 81/94/96 CPU 78%
UHDcode 36/53/57 CPU 80%

[sophisticles]

@PDR: What exactly are those numbers representing, the guy in that post on Doom9 claims that the difference is "huge" but the cpu utilization numbers seem about even.

I don't understand the point of this product and I don't understand how anyone can claim it's free when the very first post says they will be charging $29.95 after the "limited" time offer expires.

Can anyone give me some insight as to why anyone would pay $30 for it, or even why I would want it now that it's still free. I can play back 4k hevc just fine with MPC-HC and once I get my GTX960 I will even have 4k hevc hardware playback, so I fail to see what this offers. Also, is there any difference between the encoder bundled with this software and what's currently available that people built from source?

[poisondeathray]

@PDR: What exactly are those numbers representing, the guy in that post on Doom9 claims that the difference is "huge" but the cpu utilization numbers seem about even.

I don't understand the point of this product and I don't understand how anyone can claim it's free when the very first post says they will be charging $29.95 after the "limited" time offer expires.

Can anyone give me some insight as to why anyone would pay $30 for it, or even why I would want it now that it's still free. I can play back 4k hevc just fine with MPC-HC and once I get my GTX960 I will even have 4k hevc hardware playback, so I fail to see what this offers. Also, is there any difference between the encoder bundled with this software and what's currently available that people built from source?

MIN/AVG/MAX FPS - note that' s CPU decoding only

Note it's still early (1st release) , so there should be some improvements - and they have an AMD decoder as well (GPU) , and are planning Nvidia support - so wait for those tests and compare it to current Nvidia /VP 7 tests . Those HEVC decoding GTX960 / VP7 tests are posted at doom9 .

I don't know what the difference is in the encoder, I haven't used it, but if you build it from the source, your version will probably have the newest patches. I doubt the update cycle of a retail product will be that fast (and rightly so , they need proper QC before release to "retail" customers)

Enthusiasts probably won't need use this, but people (general public) pay all sorts of money for things for any number of reasons. Sometimes ease of use / interface is enough justification, sometimes retail support is the reason

[sophisticles]

So basically this would only be of use to someone that needed to transcode a file and was bottlenecked by the decoder, correct? Decoding a file at anything faster than the frame rate it's played at is useless to someone that just wants to watch the file, all you're doing is buffering the stream to ram and eventually you end up having to flush the buffer. Only if you need to transcode a file and the decode is holding you back this would prove useful.

Just seems to be like a petty money grab.

[poisondeathray]

So basically this would only be of use to someone that needed to transcode a file and was bottlenecked by the decoder, correct? Decoding a file at anything faster than the frame rate it's played at is useless to someone that just wants to watch the file, all you're doing is buffering the stream to ram and eventually you end up having to flush the buffer. Only if you need to transcode a file and the decode is holding you back this would prove useful.

Just seems to be like a petty money grab.

I didn't download it, but I think there is a separate directshow decoder and a separate AMD/GPU decoder, and a separate encoder. So you use them for whatever you want to . It sound to me like the encoder is basically the same thing as the x265 that everyone has been testing, and this early release of CPU directshow decoder isn't worth it since LAV is free. If someone posts the AMD decoding results , that would be helpful

It's not a money grab right now, because it's free.

They can do whatever they want - they are not a non profit organization. Guess what? there are other companies that sell software , decoders, encoders as well

You'd be surprised at the number of weird software titles the average consumer buys. Often they don't know any better. Just look at the various NLE garbageware out there. People eat that stuff up like candy for whatever reason. Not everyone has the time or inclination to be involved in video "stuff" or test video "stuff"

[vhelp]

Enthusiasts probably won't need use this, but people (general public) pay all sorts of money for things for any number of reasons. Sometimes ease of use / interface is enough justification, sometimes retail support is the reason

i totally believe this. people like alternatives, whether they know it or not or aware of how to use what is available already.

as long as the x265.exe encoder continues as freeware and is not hampered in any way from a commercial version (if that is on the horizon) or as additional tools become available, i.e., directshow plugins, Encoder Suite, etc., then who cares if the MCW consortium charges for it--when bundled with other tools or as a Suite. just don't be sneaky like TMPGenc / Pegasus, as they did with the mpeg encoder. the guy sold it to some other party, but it was the same guy. ok, maybe not. but you get what i mean. we've seen enough of how these things go. we test it for you, and then later you sell it. anyway. keep it free, always.

[newpball]

An intriguing company:

http://multicorewareinc.com/
http://multicorewareinc.com/about/management-team/wen-mei-hwu/

Any pre-IPO stock options for testers?

[Johno7aa]

Hi,
just wondering if you someone can help me or point me in the right direction in regards to x265.

I purchased two licenses. I have multiple win10 systems and have recently re-installed & setup
them up to enable me to use the windows image process as a backup for the whole boot partition.

These details aside, my reason for asking is i am trying to install and activate my legal purchased copies
of x265 HEVC Upgrade and using either of my activation keys does not work.

With one, it tells me it has been used for too many activation's and to purchase a new license !!!?
With the other, it gives a weird message in a small square window saying this: 'ERR_TALBE_ERROR'

Because it is a great product i have even tried to go to the x265 page and purchase another one, but I cannot
even do that. When you try to go from the home page of x265 ( http://x265.org/ ) and go from that page to
the 'x265 Encoder Application' page it goes to a blank page with this message at the top "Error establishing a database connection".

I have been unable to find an e-mail address or a phone number or any way of contacting the x265 people.

Can someone help ? failing that, can someone suggest an alternative for encoding to hevc ? the x265 hevc upgrade version is/was? VERY good,
making much smaller video file sizes with great quality.

Any thoughts appreciated,
Johno.

http://x265.org/

[sophisticles]

^Is this a joke? The original $30 sale price was a joke, a ripoff, trying to sell you something that they gave away for free. Now, 4+ years later someone actually comes and wants to buy the same thing that was discredited years ago.

I'm reminded of an old Married with Children episode, where Jefferson reveals he used to run a scam that got him busted selling highly polluted swamp land he didn't even own to suckers. Towards the end of the episode he reveals, with a laugh, that even though this scam hit the news years ago the truly stupid are sending in payments. Of course it's revealed that Al Bundy is one of the chumps that is still making payments in the hope that one day he will own the said land.

LOL!!!

@Johno7aa: Maybe you should send them a check, money order or gift card and make sure to take inflation into account, that $30 from 4 years ago is probably a few bucks more today; they also accept tips, so maybe make it an even $50. And whatever you do, definitely do not think about using ffmpeg, handbrake, hybrid, staxrip, xmedia record, xvid4psp, or any of the other legally free open source software based products out their that will allow you to encode using x265 for free.

LOL, again. Man am I glad I log onto this site this morning!

[El Heggunte]

I was going to read the latest reply to this thread, but then a moderator or the Admin had already deleted it

Anyway: since x265 a.k.a. Tom Vaughn no longer works at MultiCoreWare, probably this thread should be locked for good...