[mythtv] WinTV PVR-250 (hardware mpeg encoder)

[Michael Proctor-Smith]

>  On Thursday 09 January 2003 11:07 am, Matthew S. Hallacy wrote:
> > Howdy,
> >
> > I've searched the list archives, and there appears to be some interest
in
> > making the WinTV PVR-250 work. There are currently reference drivers in
> > the wild for this beast, and they work fairly well. There'a also an
example
> > application that does time shifting, recording to disk, etc. with
various
> > resolution and bitrate settings.

> Those reference drivers are of _very_ dubious legal status.

> > I'm willing to put my time and effort into this, but I need to get the
> > following input from MythTV developers:
> >
> > 1) What would be the optimal method for MythTV to grab data from this
> > card? From the V4L API specs i've read, it doesn't seem to have support
> > for much else than YUV data, this kind of makes the PVR-250 useless =)

> Something like the mjpeg extensions would be ideal.

There is a V4L supported mpeg2 card in the main kernel it is not offical,
but 
they have added extensions to V4L and it would be a "good idea" to try and
use
the same api.

> > 2) If the card is providing an MPEG1/MPEG2 datastream to MythTV, will
> > MythTV be playing those formats (and using them for the timeshifting,
and
> > recording) or will the stream just be reencoded to MPEG4, or RTjpeg.

> It'd probably have to play the mpeg2 stream natively.

That's fine with native mpeg2, and the fanless epia M you could have a
fanless system.

> > The output from this card is great, and I believe it would be a
wonderful
> > way of promoting MythTV considering the cost of the card (around $140)
and
> > the features of MythTV.