nope as I am not even looking at the mpeg4 hardware decoder. the video chipset has mpeg 1/2 playback acceleration in the tvia_drv.o driver for Xfree86.
this allows me to use mplayer and get the hardware acceleration out of the graphics chipset by using the v4l extension and xvideo acceleration without jumping through any hoops. so yes coupled with a pvr-250 it will work just fine. Anyways, a mini-itx setup woth a case that looks like a piece of video equipment would be more in cost. although I'm pretty sure your assessment on not having enough power ot encode video is wrong. I record from a ATI tv wonder VE with mp1e on a 500mhz P-III here and get good results.. (no it's not DVD quality at 8meg bitrate, but nither is any of the devices you can buy in the stores. Metallic6086N from GCT allwell, dvr-250 from ebay for about $89.00, 256 meg of ram for $45.00 and a 120 gig drive for $98.00 , a CD burning drive is dirt at $30.00 or a DVD rom drive for $20.00(I still don't understand wanting to play DVD's on freevo) and a few other things for grins and I'm at your $630.00 mark ready to go. If you stick with mpeg 1 or 2 files everything goes much easier. and you get the advantages of hardware playback built in the video cards. -----Original Message----- From: Rob Shortt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 9:22 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Freevo-users] freevo STB design Gray, Tim wrote: > http://www.gctglobal.com/Products/Set_Top_Box/STB6086N2/stb6086n2.html > > These are about $350.00 for the 800mhz version... no ram or hard drive > installed. I have looked into these as well. I think they are way overpriced, all you get is a STB case and a mainboard with some onboard stuff including a graphics chipset with closed source drivers. If you opt for the hardware encoding stuff and want to development with it a license will cost you $5k-$20k. So, you will still have to buy a hard drive (~$100), ram (~$50), and a capture card. This machine doesn't have enough power to encode video in real time so your best bet would be a PVR-250 which costs around $130.. USD. So now your total is up to ~$630, and that is without a rom drive. > I have one on it's way for playing with. coupled with the right hardware and > using mpeg1/2 files for recording to take advantage of the hardware playback > and they would have more than enough horsepower to act as a freevo box. Also, are you going to have to jump through hoops to get the hardware decoder to work? Is the use of the decoder automatic when using the framebuffer driver or Xv? Will it even work with mplayer or xine? These are questions that I have, and they might be worth asking on one of their bulletin boards. Here's a similar setup that I am interested in testing: 1) V8000A(no tv-out) 2) 256MB PC-133; 3) WD 80GB w/8M cache HDD; 4) VIA Sereniti 1100 case - nice small, quiet case. Items 1-4 will cost me a total of $380 CAD. Add a dvd rom drive, $50 CAD Add a PVR-350, $270 CAD. The PVR-350 would be used for hardware encoding for tv capture and hardware decoding for playback. If I had such a setup I would be tempted to make an mpeg player in python and do it all natively in Freevo. I am not sure if mplayer or xine support the PVR-350 decoder yet but it is only a matter of time. So, a complete system here would cost me ~$700 CAD which is roughly $530 USD. Not bad eh? -Rob ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. SourceForge.net hosts over 70,000 Open Source Projects. See the people who have HELPED US provide better services: Click here: http://sourceforge.net/supporters.php _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. SourceForge.net hosts over 70,000 Open Source Projects. See the people who have HELPED US provide better services: Click here: http://sourceforge.net/supporters.php _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
