[mythtv-users] Capture Card Advice

[Jeff Williams]

> Thanks Jeff,
> 
> I guess my question comes down to is this: obviously, a 
> software encoder can
> potentially produce a better image given enough computing 
> power, with little
> to no artifact, smearing, or ghosting problems on the encode 
> side, and good
> de-interlacing of the source image.  Since the hardware 
> encoders are fixed
> silicon (unless there's a pga in there), are they at a fixed 
> compression
> mode or do they allow different compression levels of the 
> mpeg encoding.

Well, just to clarify the answer someone else gave - hardware decoders will allow you different levels of compression but you are locked in to whatever codec is programmed into the chip.  I am not sure if this is upgradeable via firmware or whatever but in any case you will at least be at the mercy of the card manufacturer.  So the answer to your question seems to be yes, they are at a fixed compression mode - though the compression quality can be adjusted.

I would personally rather be able to use MPEG4 decoding, so if I was to do it over again I'd probably still buy a fast CPU and a software decoder card that only captures raw signal and lets the software determine the codec used.