What is your favorite video encoder chipset?

[jc8472]

I was pondering about which chipset compresses video at the highest quality. The only one I could think of is the LSI chipset from actual experience. I've owned a DVD/Hard Drive (HDD) recorder "ILO" which uses the LSI chipset for video encoding and playback. The LSI chipset kicks conexant and every other chipset in the butt when recording/playing video. For instance, my hauppauge pvr 150 card is somewhat decent but when recording high action scenes (InuYasha's BackLash Wave Technique), the video is blocky and choppy. An the transition intervals are somewhat blocky and mosquitowy looking even at high bitrates. Another drawback is no closed captioning. That really sucks. In order to improve the picture I have to buy a card with video acceleration which, by the way causes other problems. There are more detriments but i kinda tired right now.

Now on to the LSI chipset (ILO or AKA LITEON ACTUALLY) recording at the four hour mode (APPROX 2.1 Mbps) looks a little better than pvr 150 2hr mode. Transitions are far less pixelated and high action scenes are far less blocky. At least the closed caption ability was enable after a few months of nagging for the ILO.

In conclusion there should be more LSI chipset based video capture pci cards on the market than any conexent chipset based cards. My opinion


best of fortune

[csy]

my hauppauge pvr 150 card is somewhat decent but when recording high action scenes (InuYasha's BackLash Wave Technique), the video is blocky and choppy.

I'm not an expert in this field, but struck the same problem with my ATI550. It turned out that it couldn't encode VBR (variable length coding) properly. I switched to CBR 8Mb/s (fixed length coding) which resolved the issue.

I am very impressed with MPEG4/AVC (H.264) encoding. It provides the best quality verses compression, compared to MPEG2 and MPEG4/ASP (aka divx). I'm on the lookout for a good H.264 TV capture card.

[jc8472]

For some reason, switching to CBR exacerbates the blockiness in my rec videos. In addition, without my video card video acceleration capabilities, the pq IS horrible at the lower bitrates.


H.264 will take a massive amount of processing power and bandwidth in order to be encoded properly in realtime for HDTV use. I not very sure about SD video. For HDTV I estimate approx. 12 to 13 Ghz just to start without the processor quitting. I can recall a smoky smell emanating from my pc during converting mpeg2 files to dvd using the hauppauge disc's Ulead Moviefactory 3, therefore I doubt if my pc will have the processing power to encode h.264 video unless the video capture card HARDWARE ENCODES h.264.

[csy]

Agreed, H.264 needs to be hardware encoded, and I believe there are TV capture cards in the market with H.264 hardware encoding, but haven't had time to research this for myself yet.

[jc8472]

The only h.264 video hardware encoding card I found was for DVR SURVEILLANCE. One would have to have an aweful lot of sound line inputs to pull everything off!!!!! If the video inputs are seperate, one wouldn't be limited also.

[csy]

I did some searching myself, and agree there are no regular TV capture cards supporting H.264 hardware encoding. I was hoping the upcoming ATI650 would support this, but it does not appear so. I will wait another 6 months then have another look around.

[jc8472]

How much a card with Hardware H.264 compression would cost? H.264 is being admired by many HTPC owners, which ultimately should drive its capture card prices down to a considerable amount.

I'm presently waiting in the shadows for the Blue-Ray Burner and Media prices to fall, which will be more pricey than a used all-terrain vehicle. H.264 products could cost even more. Anytime I see High Definition Video Editing software levitating in the $10K range (It better surpasses Hollywood grade), H.264 could be an account crusher.

[jc8472]

GBPVR is EXCELLENT.

I was discussing capture card encoding chipsets, not pvr applications. In other words I'm not blaming GBPVR for my problems, they reside in the capture card and its manufacturer.

I reedited this because it appeared offensive.

[jc8472]

The pvr-150's main problems is the blockiness/pixelations with high action scenes and scene transitions. To rid my videos of such imperfections, I must use bitrates exceeding 6 MegaBitsPerSecond.

Then again it could be my pickiness concerning pq.

[jc8472]

I am impressed with the pvr-150 card results compared to other cards I've had, but if hauppauge used a proprietary algorithm they may be able to lessen the blockiness problem at the lower bitrates. The MPAA would not like that!!