Quoting Jon Reynolds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> Since you guys are talking about this, doesn't the Tivo and ReplayTV
> both have encoding on their mainboards? Isn't this why they can get away
> with such a small processor? I have never used either so I could use
> some enlightenment. I know that my freevo box running at 1ghz with 512MB
> of RAM can do mpeg4 compression as it records, are Tivo or ReplayTV able
> to do this also or are they using mpeg2?


   Yes, they both encode mpeg2 with hardware codecs. Except the DirecTiVo,
which just receives mpeg2 streams from DirecTV.


> I am using an old Hauppauge card that doesn't do any encoding of it's
> own and I know that the ATI cards do compression on the card but it is
> only mpeg2 are there other cards that do this on the card but using
> mpeg4 so that I could use a slower processor?


   I am unaware of any ATi card with hardware mpeg compression.

   ATi will tell you right to your face that their cards have hardware
decompression, but they do not. They implement a bilinear scaler and
include a hardware assist for motion compensation (which is a niceity that
makes deinterlacing prettier). afaik they don't even do an iDCT assist in
hardware, and even that wouldn't really make it decompression.

   fwiw, the VIA MiniITX boards don't have a hardware decoder either. They
offer more assistance than the ATi cards, but it's not anything like a DXR3
type card where you just stream mpeg2-pes to a pci card.

   For more than the cost of a new TiVo, you can get an ivtv based card such
as the Hauppauge PVR350 and record mpeg2 in hardware.

   I keep hearing that mpeg4 boards are available, but I haven't actually
seen any details. And I'm a guy with an ATSC encoder card on his desk at
work.



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