Hardware encoding for H264

[jpsdr]

Hello.

I may have to design an hardware board to encode video in H264 and audio in AAC.
One possibility is FPGA (Xilinx for exemple) with an H264 IP, but the cost may be too high.
The other solution is to use dedicated chipset, but i don't have any reference either any reference manufacturers who may build these.
I know for exemple that SigmaDesign produce CPU/Chipset with dedicated hardware for decoding. Maybe they have chipset for encoding, i'm still waiting their answer, but, it's the only manufacturer name i know doing this kind of things.

So anyone has any information, chipset reference, manufacturer, i'm interested in.

Thanks.

[Guest]

Unless your volumes will be significant, the SOC people will not give you much if any support at all.

[Ghitulescu]

How about a HD camcorder? Just that the audio is set by standard to be AC-3 (Dolby Digital) ....

[jpsdr]

@Ghitulescu
LOL !
No... this is a specific HW design, with input from HDMI or analog for audio and video, etc...

@neuron2
What is SOC ?

I hope this thread is not moved in a place nobody reads...
I though H264 thread was more appropriate because it's the somehow the core of my question, encoding H264.

[Guest]

SOC = System On a Chip

[Ghitulescu]

@Ghitulescu
LOL !
No... this is a specific HW design, with input from HDMI or analog for audio and video, etc...


I meant to look for the SoC of a camcorder, the video travels anyway uncompressed over HDMI (like it comes from the CCD).

I know there are BD recorders (I have even one) but I don't know whether it records off YUV (or HDMI - even if not HDCPed)

[jpsdr]

Thanks for answers, working days are sometimes hard, it's after i thought what SoC meant... And of course, it's not for significant volume.

[Guest]

And of course, it's not for significant volume. What is the project for, specifically?

[jpsdr]

It's for where i work. We have to answer for a ... [translation process working......] don't know how to translate so "A company which search someone to build something". There is an HW board to design, video input are either HDMI or CVBS or component (etc..), audio input is either digital or analog (etc..). Video has to be encoded in H264 L4.1 and audio in AAC. Result is to be stremead in network (TCP,UDP,...) with a 10/100/1000 ethernet. Board musn't cost too much, and musn't use power too much. Very low volume (around 50/year). So Xilinx with H264 IP cost too much and use too much power. I'm looking for SoC solution, but have nowhere to start. I don't know manufacturer names and didn't have any chipset reference for SoC encoding devices.
Hard part, it's for planes, so standard 0°C/60°C is not good, chip must be -40°C/+85°C working temperature. It's also a part i'm affraid off...

[Guest]

No SOC manufacturer is going to give you the time of day for 50 units/year.

Maybe approach (e.g.) Hauppauge and ask them about licensing their solution.

[Sulik]

Any modern cellphone/tablet SoCs (NVidia Tegra, Qualcomm and the likes) have a built-in H.264 encoder and will also happily encode AAC.

[Motenai Yoda]

an arduino/raspberry pi boards?

[nhakobian]

Any modern cellphone/tablet SoCs (NVidia Tegra, Qualcomm and the likes) have a built-in H.264 encoder and will also happily encode AAC.

This might be your best bet. There are standalone units that use some of these chipsets that may work. They run android natively, but there is nothing stopping you from writing your own application to access the hardware through the system API's.

From what I remember, some of these are marketed as developer units or people putting together media streamers or the like, and I think run somewhere around $200. Unfortunately I do not remember the manufacturer's names at the moment...

Edit: I found the company I was thinking of: http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php
Not sure if it would work for what you would be doing (it doesnt have a specific video input it seems, but does have USB 3 in case that is an option).