Supported Hardware
From CasparCG Wiki
Please note: This page currently only has information about version 1.8.
Please see Category:CasparCG_Server_2.0_pre-release for info about the CasparCG Server 2.0 alpha version.
CasparCG Server runs on a multitude of old and new PC hardware, and has been tested and used with several brands and models without any problems.
The following is a list of recommendations, based on the experience of running CasparCG 24/7 in professional broadcasting.
Contents |
Processors
CasparCG Server is tested and optimized for Intel Processors.
CasparCG Server takes advantage of multi-threading, running the Producers and Consumers in their own threads. A multi-core CPU is highly recommended.
The Adobe Flash component is single-threaded, meaning that CPU clock speed should be prioritized over more CPU cores; i.e. a 4-core 3.2 GHz CPU is preferable to an 8-core 3.0 GHz of the same CPU family.
RAM
4 GB RAM (or more for 64-bit systems.) While CasparCG Server is a 32-bit program, the fact that more RAM is available to the OS will improve the storage access of repeat readings through the built-in cache of the OS.
Storage
Keep the OS and the CasparCG media on separate drives. If you plan to play and transition between any pre-rendered QuickTime movie files, the media drive for SD material should be at least a single SATA/300 SSD. We've used Intel X25 with good results.
For HD video files we recommend striped (RAID0) SSD drives supporting SATA/600. PCI-E to SATA/600 cards seem to work fine if your system doesn't have SATA/600. We've had good experiences with Highpoint's RAID cards, less so with using the built-in RAID controllers of motherboards.
If you use a video codec that creates smaller files (often without alpha support,) your storage performance requirements can drop significantly.
Graphics Card (GPU)
While CasparCG Server 1.8 only requires an OpenGL 2.1-compatible GPU and only for use with the Fullscreen Consumer, CasparCG Server 2.0 will offload more processes such as color transforms to the GPU, requiring OpenGL 3.1, so we encourage you to plan you hardware specifications with this consideration.
CasparCG Server is developed and tested on Nvidia Quadro graphics cards. Other chipset may work, but have not been tested.
Chassis
We recommend 2-4U rack-mountable chassis with several PCI-E slots, to enable the use of several video cards.
OS
Windows XP SP3 32-bit is old but stable, and is what is currently being used in all CasparCG production systems at SVT.
However, we recommend Windows 7 (any flavor) 64-bit. While CasparCG Server is a 32-bit program, the fact that more RAM is available to the OS will improve the storage access of repeat readings through the built-in cache of the OS.
Just by upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 we have seen a significant performance increase in storage access.
Adobe Flash
We currently use version 10.0.32.18 of the Adobe Flash ActiveX component, registered via Internet Explorer.
SDI and HDMI Cards
The current release has two consumers that can output SDI and or HDMI video.
If you don't need to output SDI, HD-SDI or HDMI signals, you can use the Fullscreen Consumer to play content to play content directly to your monitor, without any special video output card.
Bluefish Technologies
The current release of the CasparCG Server's Bluefish Consumer supports the Bluefish444 SDK from Bluefish Technologies and should work with all the manufacturer's cards. It has been tested and used with the following cards:
- DeepBlue LT
- Fidelity
- Epoch Horizon
You can have multiple Bluefish cards in the same machine and address them independently, so that the same server can play several pieces of content.
BlackMagic Design / DeckLink
The current release of the CasparCG Server's DeckLink Consumer uses the DeckLink SDK and should support all output cards from BlackMagic Design, but to varying degrees.
If you want to play out with separate fill and key channels, you need to look for a card that has both A-SDI Out and B-SDI Out in the connection diagram/technical specs. You must also check the SD/HD capabilities of the B-channel (which is used for key output.)
The current version of CasparCG Server only supports one DeckLink card per machine. All cards that appear to the OS as separate cards (Duo / Quad) are only supported as a single output in the current version of CasparCG Server. Systems with more than three DeckLink cards need to run a 64-bit version of Windows.
To get alpha channel / key output from DeckLink cards using CasparCG Server 1.8, please launch the DeckLink Live-key application just before starting CasparCG (Decklink) server and you'll get receive both signals; fill channels on SDI-Out A and key channel on SDI-Out B.
