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

[Bruce Markey]

Dr. J. S. Pezaris wrote:
...
> I think the larger point is being missed here.  With a low horsepower CPU,
> you can think about small, low-power, fanless Myth implementations.

I'm told that there are up to 933MHz CPUs that don't need
fans. This should be fast enough to encode mpeg4 and
playback at 640x480 but is certainly fast enough for the
MythTV default of 480x480.

I personally don't believe the CPU fan is a make or break
issue. I have a system with a 1.2GHz AMD (currently $31)
and a WinTV model 401 ($29) that can record up to 720x480
mpeg4 or two tuners at 352x480 with no jitter. I'd rather
have this today than pay $140 for a card that has no open
source Linux drivers.

If there were v4l drivers for any of the dozens of on-board
mpeg encoding cards out there, I trust MythTV support would
soon follow. There already is support for MJPEG cards which
are supported under Linux.

 > ... Having an encoder farm networked to a series of display clients is
> all well-and-good for the small number of people for whom that solution is
> interesting.  I suspect that far, far more people will want something like
> I've described: a small, attractive, silent (or nearly so) one-box
> solution.

TiVo and ReplayTV already exist as stand alone boxes. A
MythTV machine could be built as quiet as these. However,
the network capability is where myth will outshine the
commercial products. I have a TiVo in one room and a replay
in another. I need to manually coordinate their schedules
then I can only watch a show where it was recorded. MythTV
already coordinates scheduling two tuners. With future
versions, I plan to have a myth box on my bedroom TV, home
entertainment center, and two in the computer room. All
four tuners coordinated by one scheduler and any recording
can be watched at any screen. Ultimate TV has two tuners
and Replay can share files from machines with separate
schedulers. I believe MythTV would be more useful than
these for anyone with more than one TV or a TV and a
computer in different rooms.

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

Hardware encoding cards are an issue to take up with
device driver projects rather than individual application
developers. MythTV already works fine without drivers for
these cards. Have you tried MythTV or are you just assuming
a CPU fan is critical? It can run on a system without a
fan and having a CPU fan is not a 'critical' issue.

--  bjm