[mythtv-users] Hardware transcode

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 4:54 AM, Josu Lazkano <josu.lazkano at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, I have a low power backend, so I can't make transcode of the
> recordings. I want to know if it is possible to attach any hardware
> device (USB, PCI, PCIe...) to the backend to make a hardware
> transcode.
>
> I look for the Elgato Turbo.264 HD:
> http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/Turbo264HD/product1.en.html
>
> Someone have any experience with this device on Linux machines?
>
> Best regards.

This question has come up before.  Support would have to be from
ffmpeg, and last I knew the patch(es) to support this device have
not made it into that code base (and therefore not into the port of
ffmpeg to MythTV).

This is no different than support for NVENC, QuickSync, VCE, or
a number of other hardware encoders.  Look to the ffmpeg or
libav teams for support.  MythTV just takes advantage of their
improvements (and, unfortunately, gets their new bugs too)
when it pulls in the later versions of ffmpeg.

Note that some individuals have a strong opinion regarding
the quality of the resulting h264 encoding with these hardware
options, which tends to influence their integration plans and
schedules.

Gary