MPEG encoder/decoder cards

Hactar

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I have Beyond TV 3, an All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500 DV, and an Athlon 2 GHz.
Sometimes when I'm recording a show and doing other things at the same time
(possibly including watching another recorded show), the "other things" take
too much CPU time and the recorded stream gets corrupted. When this
happens, BTV3's time counter gets messed up; it finishes recording, but
won't determine where commercials are, or play it successfully.

I think that by using a hardware MPEG encoder, I can solve this problem, by
making the recording take much less time. Is there such a thing? Does it
work with my video card? Does BTV3 support it? Are there other solutions
that don't involve additional hardware? Thanks.

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Hactar wrote:

> I have Beyond TV 3, an All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500 DV, and an Athlon 2 GHz.
> Sometimes when I'm recording a show and doing other things at the same time
> (possibly including watching another recorded show), the "other things" take
> too much CPU time and the recorded stream gets corrupted. When this
> happens, BTV3's time counter gets messed up; it finishes recording, but
> won't determine where commercials are, or play it successfully.
>
> I think that by using a hardware MPEG encoder, I can solve this problem, by
> making the recording take much less time. Is there such a thing? Does it
> work with my video card? Does BTV3 support it? Are there other solutions
> that don't involve additional hardware? Thanks.
>

Check out the Hauppauge threads.

Or look here :

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_250.html

Or here :

http://www.shspvr.com/forum/

I have a PVR-250 card which does to hardware mpeg-2 encoding. It uses almost no
CPU resources to accomplish this. I've made several dozen recordings in the
couple of months that I've had it and have never had a bad one.

It works *beautifully* with BeyondTV.

Make sure that you use the latest drivers from the web site rather than the CD.

By the way, I disabled the BeyondTV "smart chapters", for me it's a waste of CPU
resources.

I use "MpegVCR" to quickly eliminate commercials with no loss in quality. Their
interface isn't fancy, but it does the job beautifully.

http://www.womble.com/vcr-text.htm

If you want a really fancy, cutting edge mpeg2 editor that also does frame
accurate cuts regardless of frame type, then check out "Mpeg-Wizard". I tried
the 30 day trial and loved the interface but I felt that since all I'm doing is
cuts that I couldn't justify the extra money.

http://www.womble.com/how-to/edit-out/edit-out.htm

http://www.womble.com/how-to/trim/trim.htm

Keith
 
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> I think that by using a hardware MPEG encoder, I can solve this
problem, by
> making the recording take much less time. Is there such a thing?
Does it
> work with my video card? Does BTV3 support it? Are there other
solutions
> that don't involve additional hardware? Thanks.

Your system is _easily_ fast enought to capture without a hardware mpeg
encoder. I don't use BTV3 but I can capture in mpeg format with ATI's
encoder, encode an avi file to mpeg format with ProCoder and cruise the
Web/Usenet at the same time without any dropped frames/problems. And my
CPU utilization stays pegged at 100%. Your problem lies with some aspect
of the s/w and/or drivers, unless you have a slow/framented hd.

IMO, hardware encoders are dying a fast death with the advent of cheap
hd's, cpu's and memory.
 

Hactar

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In article <40991C1F.EB3CA8C6@hotmail.com>,
Keith Clark <clarkphotography@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hactar wrote:
>
> > I think that by using a hardware MPEG encoder, I can solve this problem, by
> > making the recording take much less time. Is there such a thing? Does it
> > work with my video card? Does BTV3 support it? Are there other solutions
> > that don't involve additional hardware? Thanks.
>
> Check out the Hauppauge threads.
>
> Or look here :
>
> http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_250.html

Thanks, but I don't want to _replace_ the card, I just want to _add_ a card.
If it's feasible, addition would be much cheaper than replacement. I
wouldn't get a very good selling price for a used AIW, especially one of
that vintage.

> By the way, I disabled the BeyondTV "smart chapters", for me it's a waste of CPU
> resources.

I've tried it both ways. It gets them wrong sometimes (e.g., when there
are multiple adjacent "MadTV" skits, or the teaser at the beginning of shows
such as "Law & Order"), but I can always ignore what BTV3 thinks or rewind a
bit after I use them to make sure they're right. I haven't found a way to
change it on a per-show basis, so I leave it on and ignore it sometimes.

> I use "MpegVCR" to quickly eliminate commercials with no loss in quality.

If I were transferring recorded items to DVD, I guess I'd look into
something like that. The system's just a fancy VCR or a stripped-down Tivo,
take your pick.

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and he who dares not is a slave. -Sir William Drummond
 
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Hactar wrote:

>
>
> Thanks, but I don't want to _replace_ the card, I just want to _add_ a card.
> If it's feasible, addition would be much cheaper than replacement. I
> wouldn't get a very good selling price for a used AIW, especially one of
> that vintage.

Well I don't know where you'll find a cheaper mpeg-2 encoder card, or one with better
*quality* for that price or less.

If you do, let me know and I'll put it in my other system as an off-line encoder.

Good luck,
Keith
 
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Hactar wrote:

> I have Beyond TV 3, an All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500 DV, and an Athlon 2 GHz.
> Sometimes when I'm recording a show and doing other things at the same time
> (possibly including watching another recorded show), the "other things" take
> too much CPU time and the recorded stream gets corrupted. When this
> happens, BTV3's time counter gets messed up; it finishes recording, but
> won't determine where commercials are, or play it successfully.
>
> I think that by using a hardware MPEG encoder, I can solve this problem, by
> making the recording take much less time. Is there such a thing? Does it
> work with my video card? Does BTV3 support it? Are there other solutions
> that don't involve additional hardware? Thanks.
>

Have you seen this one?

http://www.plextor.com/eng/products/ConvertX2.htm

You can convert video to mpeg-1,2, 4 or Divx in real time.

I found it in a catalog that came in the mail today. PC Connection is selling
them for $159.

Hope that helps...
 

Hactar

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In article <4099AFE3.EBEECBB0@hotmail.com>,
Keith Clark <clarkphotography@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hactar wrote:
>
> > I have Beyond TV 3, an All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500 DV, and an Athlon 2 GHz.
> > Sometimes when I'm recording a show and doing other things at the same time
> > (possibly including watching another recorded show), the "other things" take
> > too much CPU time and the recorded stream gets corrupted. When this
> > happens, BTV3's time counter gets messed up; it finishes recording, but
> > won't determine where commercials are, or play it successfully.
> >
> > I think that by using a hardware MPEG encoder, I can solve this problem, by
> > making the recording take much less time. Is there such a thing? Does it
> > work with my video card? Does BTV3 support it? Are there other solutions
> > that don't involve additional hardware? Thanks.
>
> Have you seen this one?
>
> http://www.plextor.com/eng/products/ConvertX2.htm
>
> You can convert video to mpeg-1,2, 4 or Divx in real time.

That appears to lack a tuner and TV-out, which I would also need.

Somebody else said that what I'm thinking of (a card that does little but
crunch video data into MPEG) is all but extinct now, because of cheap, fast
CPUs. Shame, really; I'd buy one, if it were reasonably priced.

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