[mythtv-users] Telly

[Joseph A. Caputo]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net]On Behalf Of Ray Olszewski
> Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 11:45 AM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] Telly
>
>
> At 11:26 AM 7/16/2003 -0400, Joseph A. Caputo wrote:
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net
> > > [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net]On Behalf Of Alex Davidson
> > > Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 10:44 AM
> > > To: Discussion about mythtv
> > > Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Telly
> > >
> > >
> > > http://interact-tv.com/faq.php
> > >
> > > Q. Is it possible to pause/rewind/skip-commercials of live TV
> broadcasts?
> > > A. Currently not on live TV broadcasts, but once recorded,
> you can skip
> > > 30-second intervals, pause, and rewind.
> >
> >Ah, that explains how they're getting away with a Via C3... no real-time
> >encoding, and their specs say it has a hardware MPEG decoder.
>
>
> And comtrary to what someone reported here last night, the
> illustration of
> the back panel does NOT show a jumper cable from the vidcap card to the
> sound card ... the vidcap card does not have an audio-out jack at
> all. (It
> has audio-in, presumably to go with the SVideo and Composite inputs).
>
>  From that, and everything else I saw at the site, I'd *guess* they are
> using a PVR-250 or equivalent. Naurally, they are doing "real-time
> encoding" ... I don't know any other way to record off the air,
> unless you
> have an ENORMOUS buffer that can hold many hours of uncompressed
> video ...
> but probably not simultaneous encoding and decoding, the way Myth handles
> "live" TV.

Actually, I think just the opposite... they seem to be using a standard NTSC
tuner (no hardware encoding), and are NOT doing real-time encoding (hence
the inability to pause/rewind LiveTV).  LiveTV is likely not written to disk
at all, unless you are recording something, in which case the encoding is
probably done after the recording is complete, in a less CPU-intensive
process.  So, LiveTV takes virtually no CPU, since it's just pass-thru (like
Xawtv), playback takes very minimal, as its decoded by their hardware MPEG
decoder board, and recording is done 'off-line', in such a way as can be
handled by a Via C3 processor.  All in all, it sounds closer to Freevo than
Myth.

-JAC