Playout and GPU Acceleration

Writing Telecine-Style Tape			About 3:2 Pulldown
Chapter 20, Video Capture and Video Playout

Topics on this Page:

Creating Real-Time Deliverables from the Timeline or Rendered Material

Play Out from Timeline with GPU Acceleration

It is possible to play out real-time content to tape without having to first process by using the power of the graphical processing unit, or GPU.

Use Real-time deliverables. See Creating Real-Time Deliverables from the Timeline or Rendered Material.
Play out from the timeline. See Play Out from Timeline with GPU Acceleration.

Creating Real-Time Deliverables from the Timeline or Rendered Material

You can record 10-bit, multi-format video deliverables to tape from existing source or rendered footage without having to perform additional render passes. These deliverables are processed in real time and are subject to high-quality resizing.

Note: Support for real-time deliverables depends on the version of the graphics card installed on your system. See the Lustre 2009 Release Notes for details.

Real-time deliverables can include specific primary grading (excluding curves), most reposition types, and hardware LUTs. Animation on primary grading, and on panning and scanning is also available and is performed in real time during output to tape. Modifications for real-time deliverables are displayed in Deliverable (D) view and do not affect the master version's Output view or rendered version's Print view. When playing out, you can use either source or rendered material.

Note: Real-time deliverables playout cannot include output primary grading, secondary grading, or rotations. These types of modifications must be rendered or copied to the real-time deliverables module prior to playout. See Sharing Modifications Between Setups and Grades.

For example, you could use 2K rendered footage to create an HD tape and a DVD version without having to render again. Alternately, you could use source material and apply primary grading and repositioning that only affects the real-time deliverable, and does not require a render pass prior to playing out.

Creating Setups for Real-Time Deliverables

After you switch to Real-Time Deliverables mode, the work you perform on your shot is no longer saved to the grade. Instead, it is saved to a real-time deliverables setup file. This file contains grading and reposition information that is separate from the grade file. The setup file is an XML-based grade file, which allows you to use it with other systems.

Note: You can share grading between real-time deliverables setups and grade files. See Sharing Modifications Between Setups and Grades.

Although real-time deliverables setups are linked to the grade file, you can apply a setup to a grade linked with a different cut.

After the setup has been created and loaded to a grade, you can switch back to the Playout menu and play out to tape in either Insert or Assemble mode.

Hint: Enabling the D button also allows you to send a 10-bit buffer to the SDI output.

To create a real-time deliverables setup:

In the Main menu, click Setup, and then click Grade.

The Grade menu appears.
From the Grade list, load the grade from which you want to create a real-time deliverables setup.
Click D.

The button automatically switches you to Real-Time Deliverables view mode, and enables GPU processing. See GPU Acceleration.

Note: If the screen shows a red X instead of an image, the enabled Media Origin contains no media. The following step tells you what to do.
Select the media origin to be used during playout. Enable Source for original, unrendered material. Enable Rendered for rendered material.

Note: Unrendered changes made to source material will not be applied to setups. Also, when you select Source (O scans) as the media origin, Grade file settings are bypassed.
In the Deliverables field, enter a name for the setup.
Click New. The setup name is added to the list of setups for the grade.
(Optional) Perform reposition modifications such as panning and scanning, resizing, and repositioning. See Chapter 10, Repositioning Images.

Note: Rotations cannot be included in real-time deliverables setups.
(Optional) Perform input primary colour grading. See Chapter 13, Primary Colour Grading.

Note: Only input primary grading is permitted for real-time deliverables setups.
(Optional) Apply a HW LUT, using a grade file to store it. Real-time deliverables do not save Print Lut reference. See Applying Print LUTs for Viewing.

Note: When creating real-time deliverables setups, you can only apply a HW LUT to the main monitor. In other words, you can only enable the button labelled 1.
Return to the Setup Grade menu.
Click Save to save the setup.

The setup is saved to the scene's sacc_data folder as an XML file. The file uses the real-time deliverables setup name, preceded by the name of the grade on which it is based. For example, if the grade name is grd01, and the setup name is My_HD, the XML grade file is [grd01]My_HD.deliv.xml.

Hint: You can save different versions of the same setup according to your mastering requirements.

Once a setup exists, it can either be loaded to the grade for which it was created, or loaded to a different grade.

To load a setup to the grade for which it was created:

In the Deliverables section of the Grade menu, select a setup from the list and click Load.

This loads both the grade and the setup.

To load a setup to a different grade:

In the Grade menu, load the grade on which you want to apply the existing deliverables.
Select a setup from the list, and press Ctrl while clicking Load.

This loads the setup to the grade.

To rename a setup:

Middle-click the setup name.
Enter the new name, and then press Enter.

To delete a setup:

Select a setup from the list, and click Delete.

Resizing Shots Prior to Playing Out

Before you play out real-time deliverables, resize your shots to ensure that they properly conform to the destination output format. See Resizing Shots.

Playing Out Real-Time Deliverables to Tape

After a setup has been created and loaded to the desired grade, and resizing has been performed, you are ready to play out to tape.

To play out real-time deliverables to tape:

In the Main menu, click Editing, and then click Playout.

The Playout menu appears.
Toggle the Video/Graphics raster option box to display the graphics card (GFX/SDI).
Toggle the Link Type option box to the required link type (Single or Dual).
Toggle the Format option box to the required raster format (SD, HD, Film, or Audio).
In the Raster list, select a raster.
Play out to tape in either Insert or Assemble mode. See Recording in Insert Mode and Recording in Assemble Mode.

Sharing Modifications Between Setups and Grades

By default, unrendered changes to a grade file are not applied to real-time deliverables setups, and modifications made to a setup are not copied back to the grade. However, you can force changes to be copied back and forth either on a shot-by-shot basis or for the entire scene.

To share modifications between setups and grades:

In the Grade menu, click one of the Deliverables buttons.

Click:	To transfer:
Copy In	Modifications made to the current shot from the grade to the setup.
Copy In All	Modifications made to the scene from the grade to the setup.
Copy Out	Modifications made to the current shot from the setup to the grade.
Copy Out All	Modifications made to the scene from the setup to the grade.

Play Out from Timeline with GPU Acceleration

Note: When playing out from source, playback performance may be impacted depending on the grading applied to the current shot. If frames are dropped during play out, Lustre recues the VTR to the last known frame laid down to tape.

You can now use GPU acceleration to play out source material in real time with Print LUT, primary and secondary grading, and GPU-accelerated plugins applied. While Real-Time Deliverables mode allows you to play out directly to tape, it only permits primary grading, resizing, pan and scan, and LUT processing. The Playout From Timeline lets you play out source material containing secondary grading without having to first perform a rendering pass.

By enabling the Playout From Timeline function in project settings or in the Playout menu, and by enabling GPU acceleration, you can play out from Output view mode and use all features currently supported by enhanced GPU acceleration.

Note: If you enable the Playout From Timeline function in project settings, playing out from the Output view is the default for this project. If you enable the Playout From Timeline function from within the Playout menu, this setting applies only for the current session.

For more information about GPU acceleration, see GPU Acceleration.
For more information about Output view mode, see Setting Image View Options.

If you want to play out at a different resolution than your timeline, use the real-time deliverable solution. But if you want to play out content with complex grading, use Play out from Timeline, in which case you are limited to using the same resolution as the source.

To play out source material to tape with all features supported by GPU acceleration mode:

Enable the Playout From Timeline setting by doing one of the following:
- In your project settings, enable Playout from Timeline in the Engineering menu. See Engineering menu.
- In the Playout menu, enable Playout from Timeline. See Playout Menu Options.
Note: When you define settings in Project Management, these settings become the default settings whenever this project is loaded. When you define settings in the application (that is, not in the project settings), Lustre reverts to the project setting defaults upon reboot.
Set the Player to the O view by clicking O.

Note: You must set the Player to the O view to be able to record unrendered media to tape and to use GPU acceleration.
Enable GPU acceleration by clicking GPU or by pressing Y on your keyboard.
Play out to the VTR. See Playing Out to a VTR.

Expected Performance

Real-time playback is not guaranteed when you play out directly to tape with GPU acceleration. The playback speed indicator in the GUI is a good indicator of what to expect when you lay down the timeline to tape. If frames are dropped when you play back your timeline on the SDI monitor, the same is likely to occur when you play out to tape.

You can expect good playback with no dropped frames when you ensure the following:

HD or SD format is used for both capture and output (no resize applied).
Up to four secondaries with keys are used, with a maximum of one geometry per secondary.
A 3D Mesh LUT is enabled.
GFX/SDI is enabled in the Playout menu.

Regardless of whether or not you conform to all conditions stated above, some animations may not play back in real time.

Note: Support for direct playout to tape from GPU acceleration depends on the version of the graphics card installed on your system.