Hardware card for dvd encoding.

[spyregyre]

I have a computer that I love. It is a huge beast of a machine that I built from parts. I run dvdsanta to encode avi to dvd and then burn them. It is the only machine that I have that will encode and burn dvds so that I can use them on dvd players. both my laptop and compaq desktop create dvds that are not usable in dvd players.

My problem is the beast is getting old. Almost four years old and it is a bit slow. I'm a little worried about killing the goose but I have no way of updating the cpu or memory in a significant way.

I cannot figure out why dvdsanta won't work on my other machines. I've tried other software as well but to no avail.

Is there an inexpensive add-in hardware encoder card? I've looked but been unable to find anything that I know would work.

Any info appreciated.

thanks

j.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Well, don't bother with a hardware card.

Software encoders are vastly superior, assuming you have the time to spend to do a decent job.

There are any number of great programs out there that run without any hardware assistance on almost any desktop computer that can take almost any input, and create high quality DVDs.

I don't know anything about DVD Santa, but try ConvertXtoDVD, DVD-Rebuilder, etc... There's lots out there :)

Don't polish a turd - build a new comp! :D

~MiSfit

[Sharktooth]

one of those (http://www.tilera.com/products/boards.php) with an appropriate optimized and multithreaded software encoder will be much faster than any other thing i can think of... ;)
the CPU specs are here (http://www.tilera.com/products/processors.php)
price should be about 435$ for the CPU... dont know the card...

[spyregyre]

I should have known better than to ask. I did mention that I wanted a hardware solution.

Thanks for not reading the post and contributing outside of my question.

[Guest]

There are lots of inexpensive capture cards that encode in MPEG2. Is that what you are looking for? If not, then the available solutions are more expensive than just upgrading your PC. For example, read this thread:

http://www.hardforum.com/archive/index.php/t-762492.html

BTW, you should lose the bad attitude. People *are* trying to help you; if only to prevent you from traveling down an ill-considered path.

[Sharktooth]

well, my suggested solution is not so inexpensive and it's really new (the processor was announced 2 days ago)... but it's PC independant. Once you have a PCI-Express slot you can plug the card, install the software and encode at 10 to 30x faster than the actual PCs.
however i think that's not what you're looking for, but maybe it could be interesting.