MPEG encoding software that uses hardware encoder on CX2388x

[ballfam]

I just bought a capture card that contans a Conexant CX2388x in the hopes that I can use it to do two things:

1) capture analog VCR directly to MPEG2 (I know compressed AVI is better, but I don't have the disk space, or patience to recode to MPEG for Final DVD Burning)
2) Encode my Camcorder DV input comming through the FireWire port to good quality MPEG2 in a reasonable amount of time (prefferably realtime)

The card came with two applications. Power producer 2 Gold, which produces some of the worst quality MPEG I've seen in a long time and still burns all my CPU to do it, and PVR Plus, which does a half reasonable job at producing MPEG2 from capture, but it too uses all my CPU and the result is sometimes a little jumpy, and the color is off a little.

I'm not convinced that either of these applications are using the full hardware encoding power of the CX2388x chip, or am I expecting more from the Hardware encoder that it can really deliver?

I had expected that I could somehow seamlessly frameserve from some application and ofload all the MPEG processing directly to the CX2388x chip to generate good quality MPEG in realtime or near realtime, is this really possible with this chip?

[tedkunich]

The CX2388x does not have any capabilites for MPEG anything... There is a flavor of the chip CX23880 that has a data port, that is for decoding DVB signals. From Conexants data sheet:

Bidirectional 33 MBps VIP 2.0 Host port.
Compatible with the CX23490 All-Format
MPEG 2 Decoder (CX23880 only)

What card did you get?

T

[ballfam]

This seems to add up. Some very clever marketing implies that the card has an MPEG encoder, but evidence suggests otherwhise. The card is a K-World Xpert DVD Maker http://www.kworld.com.tw/en/product/DVD-Maker/DVD-Maker.html
From the information, I'm guessing it has a CX23883

[tedkunich]

Originally posted by ballfam
This seems to add up. Some very clever marketing implies that the card has an MPEG encoder, but evidence suggests otherwhise.

To be fair to the K-World, nowhere in their literature do they state realtime hardware MPEG encoding. Unless it states it is encoded in hardware, you have to assume it is done in software. If you have a fast enough system, which many people do these days, the software encoder should work ok for time shifting programs and the like. Of course your box cannot be doing anything else when it is recording..... :)

I am not aware of any low end card (target market of the Conexant chip) that has a HW MPEG encoder.

T

[reepa]

"I am not aware of any low end card (target market of the Conexant chip) that has a HW MPEG encoder."

Hercules SmartTV has hardware MPEG encoding and an s-video in which is pretty impressive for a card under 50e IMO. It's got a bt878 chip.

[jggimi]

BT878 has no MPEG encoding capability -- if the Herc has h/w encoding, then it must be through an outboard chip on the card.

[EDIT] According to this test of the Herc card...

http://www.overclockersonline.com/?page=articles&num=169

Theres' no MPEG encoding hardware on the card. My guess is the MPEG encoding is done in the included software.

[tedkunich]

Originally posted by jggimi
Theres' no MPEG encoding hardware on the card. My guess is the MPEG encoding is done in the included software.

Yup, if you look at the posted spec for that card, you will see:

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

- Pentium II 450 (PIII 650 for MPEG-2 recording) & higher or compatible, 1 empty PCI slot, 1 sound board

The implication that MPEG is done in SW. If the card had true HW MPEG, there would be no such requirements.

T