On Fri, 21 Mar 2003, barryc wrote: > RE: the 250/350's encode /decode restrictions > > Does that mean you can't use the 350 to decode an MPEG/DVD and display it on the > monitor? Or just that you can't save the uncompressed video/audio to disk? Yes, the 350 will decode from disk to its onboard output. Older 250's can also decode, but they have nowhere to send it[1][2]. Note that neither I nor Kevin have access to a 350, so support for decode is a little, um, non-existant ;) H-P is/was looking at it, but I think he got diverted. Note that while the iTVC15 does support 6ch. AC3, the Hauppauge cards are only wired to support stereo input (and output I think). > Is the 350's decoder really necessary if your video card has a built-in mpeg > decoder? Assuming you have a driver for it, no. Except for the dxr2/dxr3 cards, I'm not aware of any other decompression drivers. I'd love to hear about any others. > I was looking at the myth-tv project for a while, but they do all their mpeg > encoding in software, and they have problems with the audio and video losing > sync. :( One of Kevin's goals was to add Hardware compression to MythTV. At the moment we're focused on the ivtv driver FWIW, Miguel Freitas has written a plugin for Xine to do "live pause" :) > maybe the 250/350 is where I should be planning to spend my money.... All I can say is that I'm quite happy with my 250. I'm hoping to get my hands on another board, possibly a 350, so I can put this one into "production", so to speak ;) John [1] They lack the Video encoded and upgraded sound processor required. [2] I speculate that a minimally clever driver can use the stock firmware to transfer decoded MPG back to the host.
