Which H.264 PCI Encoder card to buy?

[Dust Signs]

Hi,

a friend of mine told me that a friend of his recently purchased a H.264 video encoding card for PCI which he already used to convert two DVDs to "H.264" files (he wasn't that precise concerning the output ;)).
Due to the fact that the shop he bought it from no longer exists, he could only tell me that it is either http://www.gaotek.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=116_92_46&products_id=109 or http://www.gaotek.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=116_92_46&products_id=111. The question which arises now is: which one of those two to buy when backing up DVDs? Has anyone some experiences with quality/time/software issues? Can anyone recommend one of those two or another PCI card for encoding?

Dust Signs

[Blue_MiSfit]

You're not going to get very good quality with a cheap hardware encoder. These would be very useful with security cameras or for other real-time applications, but for the most part a software solution will provide much better quality at the expense of processing time.

~MiSfit

[Dust Signs]

Cheap is relative... I do not need realtime processing - I thought that this card could be used as an alternative for processing H.264 with my CPU - the quality should be nearly the same in order to convince me to buy it ;)

Dust Signs

[Blue_MiSfit]

It can be an alternative for processing h.264 on your CPU, but you have to understand what the goals for such a card are vs the goals of a good software implementation like x264.

Hardware encoders are designed to take an input, and provide an output in real time.

Software encoders are not limited by time, and because of this have the opportunity to do more calculations - ie 2 passes = proper rate control, better RDO, etc...

If you are doing DVD backups, then there is no question that (provided you don't require real-time) a software implementation will give you better quality at the same bitrate.

Maybe at 10mbps for SD NTSC that hardware encoder can match the quality of x264 at 3mbps. Who knows, I'm arbitrarily creating numbers here, but certainly x264 with maxed out settings vs the hardware at 3mbps will be no contest. Of course, x264 might only spit out a couple frames per second (per pass) at very high settings.

~MiSfit

[Dust Signs]

Thank you very much for that information. Then such a card is maybe not the best solution for me - would have been too nice to spend 500$ for a card an then encode in realtime in the same quality ;)

Dust Signs

[Blue_MiSfit]

I totally agree :) Someday!

[Romario]

Ateme have hardware H.264 encoder card. Look at http://www.ateme.com/VS_vsip2.php and http://www.ateme.com/BB_kompressorAVC.php and http://www.ateme.com/BB_encoder_pc.php

[Sharktooth]

still encoding card are for streaming contents and realtime encoding.
they have no 2pass RC, etc...

[Pookie]

http://www.mainconcept.com/site/index.php?id=16548

Don't know if it is out yet, no pricing info, and only does SD resolution. The literature says realtime encoding speed. I wonder if that can do two-pass.