Aurora5 HEVC Encoder SDK
Get 1080p at 1.5 Mbps with the Aurora5 HEVC encoder.
Click ORANGE PLAY BUTTON to see how Aurora5 compares to x265.
So efficient you can deploy it aywhere.
Having squeezed every last drop of performance from the 20+-year-old H.264 codec, many of us are looking for a cost-effective way to deliver 4K HDR video. Hardware is fast with low latency, but the quality is often lacking. Opensource solutions seem to require too much processing power, which gets costly.
What if you could match H.264’s CPU requirements, lower the bitrate, and deliver even better quality video?
Aurora5 presents an efficiency advantage over H.264, VP9, and other HEVC encoding solutions in rate-distortion performance, encoding speed, and memory consumption under both subjective and objective quality assessment. Visionular’s Intelligent Optimization technology enables the Aurora5 encoder to achieve maximum visual quality at any predefined bitrate. This translates to 40% or more savings in many real-world applications.
Aurora5 is the market’s most advanced and highest-performing HEVC (H.265) encoder. It can operate significantly faster than x265 at the same perceptual quality, and for live streaming, scenarios can even exceed the encoding speed of x264.
Optimized for anything from premium UHD VOD to broadcast quality live streaming, ultra-low latency, and more. Aurora5 supports 8-bit and 10-bit color, HDR, 8K resolution, and frame rates up to 120fps.
Deploy Aurora5 as an SDK with a binary file, a fully integrated FFmpeg plugin makes this encoder simple to integrate into any workflow or as the AuroraCloud SaaS service.
Aurora5’s tremendous compute efficiency allows it to be deployed as an SDK on mobile devices. It is specifically optimized for ARM architectures.
The Muxer One is a portable encoder and streaming box for real-time applications. Made to be battery-powered, the efficiency of the encoder was critical. Using Aurora5, they can deliver 1080p at 6Mbps at a much higher quality than even the onboard hardware encoder could achieve.
Features.
Highest Performance
- Faster than x265
- Same speed as x264 medium
- Identical visual quality with 20% fewer bits
Fast Per-Title Encoding
- Accelerated Machine learning
- Spatial & Temporal feature extraction
- Encoding parameter CRF & resolution prediction
ABR Multi-Streaming
- GOP aligned synchronized keyframe positions
- Single instance produces multiple bitstreams
- Predefined ladders include bitrate & resolution
10-bit HDR
- UHD Bluray Compatible
- HDR10, HDR10+
- 10 bit color, 4:2:0, Rec709, BT.2020
Real-World Performance
In the independently performed test below, the goal was to see how many simultaneous live streams one box could deliver at various bitrates without dropping below 50 FPS at multiple bitrates.
They goal was to support multiple 4K streams on a single server. They tested an open-source x.265 encoder but could not achieve the minimum 50 FPS at any of the tested bitrates.
Testing open-source x.265, the server could not support the minimum 50 FPS at any of the tested bitrates. However, after switching to
Aurora5, on the same hardware was able to deliver two concurrent 4K streams while maintaining 50 FPS up to 30 Mbps.
After such great results, they decided to run the same tests but at 1080 for many of their existing customer not yet ready to upgrade to 4K. Using the appropriate bitrates. The results were just as impressive, again delivering 2X the performance with a slightly improved image quality.
x264 vs. x265 vs. Aurora5 encoding speed.
To showcase the tremendous advantage that Aurora5 brings to live premium video streaming services, the following chart shows Aurora5 encoding speed performance compared to x264 medium and x265 veryfast.
All testing was performed on AWS using the AMD EPYC 7R32 16 core and 32 thread EC2 instance. Video quality was carefully normalized across the six videos that were 1080p 60, 50, and 25 FPS.
We believe in testing that approximates real-world applications. This test was to measure the number of simultaneous encodes able to be performed by each encoder on the same machine. Wherever the encoding speed in FPS was equal or greater than the source frame rate, the encoder is capable of reaching live streaming performance. Four target bitrates were selected for each file. This is important since higher bitrates will always cause the encoder to slow down.
Summary of results
-
- Compared against x264 medium, Aurora5 veryfast can achieve a 40% encoding speed improvement with a coding efficiency BD-rate gain of 40~47% using various objective quality metrics.
- Compared against x265 veryfast, Aurora5 veryfast can encode at a speed faster than 2.5x the speed of x265 fast, while yielding a coding efficiency BD-rate gain of 15% with various objective quality metrics.
- Aurora5 is the only encoder capable of encoding four simultaneous 1080p streams on the same machine. This makes Aurora5 an excellent choice for premium live streaming applications such as sporting and gaming events.
Ultra-Efficient HEVC Software Decoder
Compatibility and performance are the two main challenges for decoding H.265. Lower-performing mobile phones or OTT TV for example, still rely on software solutions. With so many different devices decoding video differently, it’s hard to deliver a consistent experience that always works and consistently looks good. The Aurora5 HEVC decoder does just that.
For applications where hardware HEVC decoding is not an option, Visionular offers an efficient and lightweight software decoder.
Power-efficient decoding
- 2X faster than Opensource
- 30% of memory compared to open source
- Needs only 20% of available CPU
The HEVC ecosystem has been developing since 2013 and with nearly all mobile devices, connected UHD televisions, game consoles, and media players supporting the standard, there has never been a better time to switch from the aging H.264 codec standard to the much more efficient HEVC codec. Powerful video companies like Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Comcast, Hulu, Apple, and HBO are already streaming HEVC compatible bitstreams.
More information.
Based on an “AI + core encoding” framework, Aurora5’s intelligent encoding engine integrates core technologies such as adaptive video preprocessing, intelligent code control, and ROI area detection, combined with encoding kernel optimization, to most effectively allocate bits in the video frame. This enables Aurora5 to be as much as 30% more efficient than x265 at the same quality.
Aurora5 offers multiple deployment options for maximum flexibility. It is available in an SDK binary, FFmpeg plug-in, and cloud service API’s. Operating systems supported include Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android.
Aurora5 is much faster than x265, and can be used in low-latency scenarios such as live sports streaming, live broadcast streaming, virtual desktop, video conference (RTC), and cloud gaming.
Aurora5 is a full solution that includes multiple modules such as client-side encoding, server-side encoding, and playback-side decoding. In combination with our proprietary CAE (content adaptive encoding) technology, Aurora5 greatly reduces the video bit rate, reducing costs and improving efficiency for video platforms and streaming services. Aurora5 supports SCTE-35, Dolby Vision, HDR10, 10-bit color, and a full range of audio codecs.