[mythtv] an architectural issue for future releases

[Dr. J. S. Pezaris]

Hi Issac and Other Readers,

Before raising any issues, I want to first be up-front and say that I *do*
think Issac (with the assistance of the small handful of other contributors
and developers) has been doing a bang-up job.

I'd like to ask a high-level question about the basic architecture of the
system, though.  One of the problems with software-based codecs is that you
need heavy-duty processing power, at least in contemporary terms,
especially to be running both ends simultaneously.  With the advent of
low-power (both in Watts and in CPU cycles per second), small motherboards
such as the Via Eden series which have nearly everything included *except*
a video capture card, I wonder if it doesn't make sense to design support
in MythTV for more powerful video capture cards which include hardware
encoding and perhaps decoding.

Does anyone have experience with these cards, and know how well they are
supported under Linux?  Can anyone familiar with the internal architecture
of MythTV (like Issac) suggest how difficult this might be?

Cheers,

	- pz.

-- 
John Pezaris, Ph.D.
pz@hms.harvard.edu