MPEG coder opinion solicitation

[Guest]

So... if you have the lates and greatest 1.0+ chip with DDR/RDRAM along with the highest quality components, which will allow you to produce the best quality video MPEG2/4:

Hardware coder OR s/w coder?

I seem to recall that during my reading up on this subject there have been many references that state if you have enough CPU ability that software coding will produce better quality due to most "affordable" hobbiest hardware coder equiped style boards tend to have marginal hardware coders.

I am just soliciting for opinions prior to building my multimedia system. Will most likely go with Athalon 1.2/3 266fsb / DDR / ASUS or MSI. Please be free flowing with your ideas... not only opinions on board choices and sytem components/setup. Would love to hear what works for you

Cheers,
Debs

 

[Guest]

Software encoders will always be better quality, but not for realtime capture. If you want realtime capture your need hardware assisted MPEG compression.

If time is not important and you are compressing from a recorded source, then software encoding is the way to go. But if you need live encoding, well your timing is just right, for only $200-250 Hauppauge just released a WinTV-PVR card that does both Realtime MPEG1 and MPEG2 compression. The MPEG chip it uses must be good as it has been chosen by several settop cable box manufacturers and I believe either Tivo or ReplayTV choose it for their next generation PVR.

Best software encoders:

MPEG1 = Panasonic MPEG Encoder 2.3
MPEG2 = Ligos

Jeff

 

[Guest]

What works for me is the Sigma Designs Hollywood plus hardware decoder with the Pioneer 16x DVD. No jerkiness whatsoever, but I haven't compared it with a software decoder.

MPEG2 is definitely a better quality video format. MPEG4 is just more compressed.

I can't imagine that a Geforce 2 GTS, Pro, or Ultra paired with a 1.2 Ghz chip is going to give you bad results from software decoding. Getting the hardware decoder, however, will prevent you from having to get one of those fairly expensive cards (>$200).


- Every private citizen has a public responsibility

 

[Guest]

Hello Jeff and Wheeljawk,

I just wanted to stop in and thank the two of you for the input on my query. Unfortunately I have had some urgent matters to attend to over the past week or so which will continue to keep me sidelined for some time to come. If or when I get back to this I will be sure to check again and gather opinions on the latest and greatest.


Thanks again for the suggestions

Debs

 

[Guest]

I haven't experimented much with live capture, so I'll just comment on software compression.

Mpeg2 is a more versatile format, as it is supported in hard formats such as DVD, SVCD, and mini-DVD. Mpeg4 is impressive as you can use a low bitrate and high res without concerns for quality. It has issues in that you cannot use it to make anything playable on a standalone machine or hardware DEcoder.

You mention hardware vs. software "coding" which is a little vague, so I'll also tell you about hardware decoding. IMO, the Sigma Hollywood+ is the best card out there for hardware decoding (watching DVD). Software decoding can be done fine with a 400+ mhz cpu and an 8 meg agp video card. If you plan to output dolby digital, you'll also need a soundcard with digital out, or buy a digital bracket and couple it with an sblive value. If your goal is to output to TV, I'd go with the Sigma H+. Great quality output and no brackets to fool with.