PC Hardware

Last reviewed: March 2016

Creation and, in particular, playback of an HDAV presentation make quite high demands on hard and software. This is why we would like to make a few recommendations with regard to the setup of your system. We would like to inform you about components we or our customers have had positive experience with. However, with computer technology being continuously developed further, we can neither assume responsibility for completeness nor for correctness of these recommendations. These tips have been compiled to the best of our knowledge and belief. Despite this fact, we cannot guarantee full operability of a computer based on these specifications.

Computer for HDAV presentation

Main boards

High-quality and high-performance main boards are available from a number of manufacturers. To an increasing extent, main boards are equipped with components and interfaces that can be selected in accordance with personal requirements. We recommend Intel chip sets, e.g. X99 which is currently a very powerful chip set or H97 and Z97. Moreover, the board should have good fan control to allow for efficient and silent ventilation.

Barebones: These compact computers usually come as a complete unit with a main board and a case.  Recommendable units are barebones by Shuttle, e.g. XPC SH97R6 for Intel systems. For thermal and power supply reasons, the choice of further components (graphics card and power supply) is rather critical. We therefore recommend contacting an experienced dealer for that purpose.

Processor

Playback of high-resolution HDAV shows and HD videos requires extra performance and you should acquire a very fast processor. We recommend processors with four or more processor cores and hyperthreading, e.g. Intel i7 series 4000, 5000 or 6000, as well as Intel i5 series 6000 with four cores. For PCs that serve as a multidisplay system and supply contents to several video projectors or displays we recommend using Hexacore processors. Please bear also in mind that latest generator processors use thinner layers, i.e. currently 22 or 14 nanometer for the 6000 series, and feature lower heat dissipation than the previous processor generation (low TDP value, specifies maximum power dissipation) which results in reduced fan activity.

RAM

For Wings Vioso RX, the computer should have a minimum RAM of 4096 MB or, preferably, even 6144 MB. If you are planning to do image or video editing by means of supplementary software a RAM of 12 GB or up would definitely make sense. However, this requires also a 64-bit operating system. We recommend 64-bit Windows 7 Professional. In such a case, Wings Vioso RX can make use of up to 4 GB RAM!

Graphics card

For playback of images and videos, the graphics card is a decisive factor. Medium- and higher priced graphics card by Nvidia and ATI/AMD are suitable, e.g. Nvidia Geforce GTX 750 TI, GTX 760 to GTX 790 or AMD Radeon R7 265, R9 270X to R9 290X. For 4K applications we recommend Nvidia GTX 950 to GTX 1080 as they also feature HDMI 2.0 outputs. As output of H.265 videos will require Nvidia graphics cards with Maxwell chipset and up (i.e. GeForce GTX 9xx or Quadro Mxxx, respectively) in the near future, we clearly recommend these graphics cards.

Modern and powerful graphics cards offer two or more outputs (frequently in different versions, e.g. DVI, HDMI and Display Port) and good acceleration due to hardware 3D rendering, which is used extensively by Wings Vioso RX. Some models consume a lot of power which may turn out to be a problem for barebone power supply and cooling units. With barebones you should therefore make sure that their power consumption is only moderate. Dual slot graphics cards usually have more cooling power and lower noise levels. Narrow single slot cards do not block PCI slots, which may be important for barebones which usually have only one additional PCI slot. What is also important is the graphics memory which should have a capacity of at least 1 GB, or 2 GB or more for more demanding applications.

For Multidisplay application we recommend Nvidia Quadro M4000, M5000 or M6000, which offer four Display Port 1.2 outputs and 8 to 12 GB video memory. These professional graphics cards feature hardware-based automatic output syncing and require selection of playback mode Multihead (Nvidia Quadro Sync) in the Wings Options. Moreover, they also allow EDID storage to avoid allocation problems if a display fails during operation and must be replaced. See also Synchronization of graphics output using Nvidia Quadro cards.

A very high screen resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels and higher) and usage of two monitors also uses up a lot of graphics memory. In this case you should possibly have a slightly larger graphics memory.

If you want to use live video in a presentation you need a graphics card supported by Wings Vioso RX. In principle, all input cards with WDM or "Video for Windows" driver are suitable, although we cannot guarantee proper function in all cases. We had very good experience using Datapath Vision-RGB E1S/E2S or VisionSDI2 for HD-SDI. They ensure faultless operation, excellent results and minimized delay. See also Settings for commonly used video input cards.

Hard disks / SSD / controller

Today's hard disks offer sufficient capacity and speed for playback of HDAV presentations.  Hard disks with "Eco Green" function and variable speed cannot be recommended (e.g. products by WD) as access may be delayed. Make sure hard disks feature a constant speed of 7200 Rpm. For extensive video editing you need a very large hard disk as one minute of DV or HDV video requires about 250 MB. Nowadays, Seria-ATA-6G-Controllers are state-of-the-art. Combined with Serial-ATA hard disks they are able to supply data, via the Southbridge, directly to the RAM and offer excellent performance. If you would also like to use external hard disks, the computer should be provided with an eSATA or even a USB 3 port.

We recommend SSDs for the operating system. They feature a very fast flash memory which accelerates booting and writing of temporary files considerably. Booting in less than 30 seconds is standard.

Tip: If you do not want to use a separate computer for presentation you should arrange for an additional hard disk or SSD for separate installation of the operating system. This installation can be kept "slim" and be adjusted for optimum presentation performance.

Sound card

In addition to high audio quality, the sound card should also feature a fast driver which does not put any extra strain on the CPU. These demands are very often met even by low-cost sound cards or onboard soundchips. An interesting alternative are also external sound interfaces which are available with a variety of different features. Make sure they can be connected via Firewire or USB 2 ports although it must be mentioned that the current PC generation does not longer offer Firewire very much. We cannot recommend connection via a USB 1.1 port as usage of this older interface could interfere with the system performance. Please note also that there are also interfaces that use Steinberg UR22, which can only be connected to USB 2 but not USB 3.

When it comes to balanced outputs or multi-channel sound, you can also choose between internal and external solutions. For a number of years and with a whole range of different operating systems we have been quite successful with RME sound cards. Sound solutions by M-Audio, Motu or ESI-Audio can also be recommended.

Asynchronous audio playback, e.g. for loop playback of some interval music while Wings Vioso RX is pausing at a pause marker and the speaker is making his live comments, requires a sound card with "multi-client capability". While the normal, up-to-date stereo sound cards usually have "multi-client capability", this is not necessarily so for professional sound cards and interfaces. If you want to use a professional multi-channel sound card, you may need to use an additional stereo output for asynchronous playback to allows synced soundtrack and asynchronous interval sound to be mixed externally. This, however, requires the Wings Vioso RX Pro License featuring multi-channel support.

Tip: Those who use sound cards with unsymmetrical outputs for events should always have a ground isolation circuit or a DI box handy to help eliminate ground loop hum problems. Good ground isolation circuits with suitable cables for your computers are available from specialists dealers.

Monitor

The higher the screen resolution, the easier editing gets with a great number of tracks. We recommend dual monitor mode as the extended desktop offers double the space for editing and the screen can be moved to a separate monitor. For a large angle of view we recommend LCD displays using VA or IPS technology. By contrast, TN displays only offer a very restricted angle of view.

By now, there are also more cheaply priced monitors with a very high resolution of 2560 x 1080 pixels (panorama 21:9), 2560 x 1440 pixels (16:9) and 2560 x 1600 pixels (16:10) or 4K with up to 4096 x 2160 pixels available, that make watching of photographs and HDAV shows great fun. Monitors or projectors with resolutions above 1920 x 1200 pixels require a graphics card with outputs that are able to output the required resolutions and frame rates.

In the meantime there are also 5K monitors available (5120 x 2880 pixels), e.g. by Dell or HP, that need to be supplied via two display ports. On high-resolution monitors the menu names and icons in Wings Vioso are very small and quite difficult to recognize. From Windows 8.1 and up this is no longer a problem as the program window is scaled up and is displayed at the same size as for Full HD resolution.

Important note: Scaling up the Windows interface also affects the screen and the full screen presentation and causes blurs. During the presentation the option for scaling up fonts and program windows should be deactivated. See also Configuring screen savers, sounds and user interface. Currently, it definitely makes sense to use a second monitor with moderate resolution to accommodate the Wings Vioso RX program window and ensure proper functional capability and to use a high-resolution monitor only for the screen window or the full screen, respectively.

Those who want to use videos in their shows should get hold of a monitor that features sRGB mode, which is particularly suited for web and video applications. This mode is necessary for a correct joint display of images and videos, since sRGB/BT.709 is the standard default output color space for HDTV standard. Good monitors and video projectors in particular have a distinctly larger color space than sRGB which may lead to oversaturated colors in videos. First-class wide-gamut monitors, such as Eizo series CS, CX and CG are able to create calibration targets for sRGB or Adobe RGB and thus allow the required calibration to be selected with a mouse click. The large AdobeRGB color space should only be used in combination with image processing programs that are able to do color management otherwise Windows user interfaces come in nasty bright colors which may impair the assessment of images in programs without color management.

Further components

Most of the other computer components, such as keyboard, mouse, etc. have no influence on the operation of Wings Vioso RX, provided they are in working order. Refer to Valuable information about DVD systems for info about DVD players or writers and to Information about data projectors for info about video projectors.

Notebooks for HDAV presentation

Using a notebook for a mobile presentation is quite a tempting idea. However, we advise you not to use notebooks for ambitious and professional HDAV presentations to an audience and when HD videos are included. They differ from conventional computers in three aspects.

2.5" Hard Disks

The 2.5" hard disks that are customary for notebooks tend to create a bottleneck during presentations. Their performance is frequently only half or only one third of that of conventional 3.5" hard disks. An accumulation of several HD videos may result in loading or display problems. When SSDs are used these arguments no longer hold true if the show data are also located on the SSD.

Graphics Hardware

Usually, the main processors of notebooks have an integrated graphics feature that is active by default and is meant to save energy. This graphics solution is unsuitable for HDAV shows. If the notebook is additionally equipped with a “real graphics card” with its own memory  it must be activated for Wings Vioso RX. However, there are various energy-saving models of GPUs and memories around which are distinctly inferior to desktop models. Tests have shown that very often only half the performance of desktop computers is achieved. Moreover, current graphics drivers are less easily available than those for desktop variants, since suppliers of notebooks do not take such an active interest in them.

Thermal problems

Intensive use of a notebook often causes temperature problems for graphics card and processor. This is mainly due to the compact build of notebooks and the fact that the graphics processor is seldom or not at all provided with a fan, which, on top of all this, tends to be undersized. All this, combined with continuous strain such as a presentation, may lead to delays (cooling periods) of the processor and irritating jerky playback. Usually, these effects only show after a period of 20 minutes or more. A slight improvement of this situation can be achieved by using a cooling pad for notebooks, which is available in specialist shops. These cooling pads, however, can only cool the outside, which is not the optimal solution.

Configuration for trouble-free operation.
If you still want to use a notebook to run Wings Vioso RX it should have an S-ATA hard disk with at least 7200 rpm and a fast graphics system with separate graphics memory. Shared memory systems usually offer modest performance for playback of HDAV shows. Also the integrated sound chips have a bad reputation for the interfering noise they produce and the fact that the cannot meet the high demands in terms of audio quality. A solution might be external sound interfaces to be linked up via a USB 2/3 port.

To achieve best-possible performance and long battery operating time, you should give preference to dual-core processors designed for mobile applications and low power consumption. Suitable medium to high-performance graphic chips are available by AMD Radeon or Nvidia.  Helpful information on the classification of numerous variants can be found at the following location:

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Vergleich-mobiler-Grafikkarten.358.0.html  (German only)

If you are planning to get hold of a notebook you should perform extensive tests by running high-resolution HDAV videos with complex programming on the models in question. The problem is that once you have bought it, you can't replace the components any more. Notebooks with integrated graphics and real graphics chip by AMD Radeon and Nvidia Optimus require usage of the better graphics chip to be activated for Wings Platinum. See also Activating the Nvidio Optimus graphics chip.

An alternative might be a standard PC in a compact housing adapted for mobile operation by adding handles, etc. A compact computer to be acquired would be a barebone version. In this context, barebones by Shuttle can be recommended. They have been used successfully for HDAV applications by many users. See also further above under Barebones.

See also

Software configuration for presentation computers