Re[2]: [mythtv] WinTV PVR-250 (hardware mpeg encoder)

[Wayne Johnson]

I think you miss the point of this project. Isaac wrote this for his
amusement. If you provide patches etc, he might consider it. I
personally don't see what the big deal is lately with the whole
sff/mini-itx movement.
On the topic of quieting a computer it doesn't have to be expensive at
all. rubber grommets found at hardware stores can be used for fan and
harddrive/cd/dvd mounting to cut down vibration. Also, quiet fans can
be found online at very reasonable prices.
My 0.02 cents
Thursday, January 9, 2003, 10:19:13 PM, you wrote:

DJSP>     From: Isaac Richards <ijr@po.cwru.edu>
DJSP>     To: mythtv-dev@snowman.net
DJSP>     Subject: Re: [mythtv] WinTV PVR-250 (hardware mpeg encoder)
    
DJSP>     On Thursday 09 January 2003 11:07 am, Matthew S. Hallacy wrote:
    
DJSP>     > The output from this card is great, and I believe it would be a wonderful
DJSP>     > way of promoting MythTV considering the cost of the card (around $140) and
DJSP>     > the features of MythTV.
    
DJSP>     And you can buy a cpu that will produce better quality video with higher 
DJSP>     compression for $50.  I'm not really interested in the cards. =)
    
DJSP> I think the larger point is being missed here.  With a low horsepower CPU,
DJSP> you can think about small, low-power, fanless Myth implementations.  A
DJSP> larger CPU requires a bigger, noisier fan, and a bigger, noisier power
DJSP> supply, and a bigger, more expensive chassis.  The catch is that a low
DJSP> horsepower CPU requires hardware support for at least one of
DJSP> encoding/decoding, if not both.  The recently released VIA EPIA
DJSP> motherboards (with equivalent of 500 MHz Pentium III processors) are
DJSP> screaming to be built into a Myth box (TV out, network and video on-board,
DJSP> digital/analog audio out, fanless, small, and inexpensive), but they don't
DJSP> have the horsepower to do real-time software encode/decode on video
DJSP> streams.

DJSP> I know it's possible to work really hard and get a decent-looking
DJSP> desktop-sized case with a heavy-hitting processor that is reasonably quiet,
DJSP> but the solutions quickly become expensive.  I don't see having separate
DJSP> encode and decode boxes being very interesting as there are already
DJSP> commercial one-chassis attractive and quiet implementations (like TiVo)
DJSP> that work just fine for much of MythTV's functionality and aren't that
DJSP> pricey.  Having an encoder farm networked to a series of display clients is
DJSP> all well-and-good for the small number of people for whom that solution is
DJSP> interesting.  I suspect that far, far more people will want something like
DJSP> I've described: a small, attractive, silent (or nearly so) one-box
DJSP> solution.

DJSP> In sum: I think suporting harware encoding/decoding in MythTV is not just a
DJSP> good idea, but a critical one.

DJSP> That's my two cents.

DJSP>        - pz.




-- 
Best regards,
 Wayne                            mailto:bigman1@alltel.net