software encoder support for Hauppauge cards (experimental)

[sub]

I dont know if it'll remain part of the application long term, as I prefer to only deal with hardware encoder devices, but I've attached a patch that will enable analog support on some Hauppauge software encoder devices (like HVR3000/4000 analog side).

To use this, you also need to have the Hauppauge SoftMCE software installed.

I havnt really tested it, but if anyone gives it a go, let me know how you get on.

[tvshowman]

will this work with the 150 cards? i have the 500?

it would be neat to be able to use software codecs like divx in realtime to see if they can produce interesting results on killer rigs...

any thoughts?

[sub]

will this work with the 150 cards? i have the 500?

No - these devices have hardware encoders so dont require any software encoding.

it would be neat to be able to use software codecs like divx in realtime to see if they can produce interesting results on killer rigs...

Sorry, I wouldnt be interested in going down that path. I'll only be recording to the format natively produced by the cards, with the exception of this software MPEG2 encoding to make the analog side of the Hauppauge non-encoding hybrid devices a little more useful. Even then it's not something I want to waste a lot of time on.

[tvshowman]

Thanks sub!

Isn't there a plugin that may work to make the 150 cards use software only?

I remember in the early days before I was into PVR software I used virtual dub and software encoders and i'm wondering how the software encoders are doing now with multi processor support....


anyone have any info or a link?

[pBS]

cool! thanx a bunch.... assuming it is locked into those particular filters..
anything special we have to do with direct.ini? make a section like for hvr900?

i'll be exploring this quite a bit as the results i got from another software encoder was much better than the hardware onboard...
what was the drawback to using this before? what's changed?

i might even get a hvr1250 if it works decent...
[no other hvr low profile cards that have 2 tuners]

just about everyone's using soft encode for anolog side in MCE thesedays...and it works quite well...

[Etacovda]

Thanks sub!

Isn't there a plugin that may work to make the 150 cards use software only?

I remember in the early days before I was into PVR software I used virtual dub and software encoders and i'm wondering how the software encoders are doing now with multi processor support....


anyone have any info or a link?

why would you want to do that, i dont understand. Hardware encoding is a good thing, the reason sub has done this is so people will get all the usage out of their cards that cannot do hardware encoding for analog signals.

i guess like pbs says above, you might be able to get better quality?

[sub]

cool! thanx a bunch.... assuming it is locked into those particular filters..
anything special we have to do with direct.ini? make a section like for hvr900?

This section seems to work with my HVR-900.

Code:

[Hauppuage HVR-900]
ARCHITECTURE=88X
INIT_MODE=DEFAULT
INIT_MSP=0
SUPPORTS_FM_RADIO=1
BLACKBIRD=1
CONEXANT=0
ENCODER_DISCONNECT_BUG=1
FORCE_ENCODER=1
FILTER_CROSSBAR=WinTV HVR-900 Crossbar
FILTER_CAPTURE=WinTV HVR-900 Capture
FILTER_TV_TUNER=WinTV HVR-900 TVTuner
FILTER_TV_AUDIO=WinTV HVR-900 TVAudio
FILTER_CAPTURE_AUDIO=
FILTER_ENCODER=MainConcept (MCE) MPEG Encoder
PIN_CROSSBAR_VIDEO_TUNER_IN=Video Tuner In
PIN_CROSSBAR_AUDIO_TUNER_IN=Audio Tuner In
PIN_CROSSBAR_VIDEO_DECODER_OUT=Video Decoder Out
PIN_CROSSBAR_AUDIO_DECODER_OUT=Audio Decoder Out
PIN_TVTUNER_ANALOG_VIDEO_OUT=Analog Video
PIN_TVTUNER_ANALOG_AUDIO_OUT=Analog Audio
PIN_TVAUDIO_TV_AUDIO_IN=TVAudio In
PIN_TVAUDIO_TV_AUDIO_OUT=TVAudio Out
PIN_CAPTURE_ANALOG_VIDEO_IN=Analog Video In
PIN_CAPTURE_ANALOG_AUDIO_IN=Analog Audio In
PIN_CAPTURE_PREVIEW_AUDIO_OUT=Video Virtual Out
PIN_CAPTURE_CAPTURE_OUT=Capture
PIN_CAPTURE_I2S_OUT=Audio
PIN_CAPTURE_656_OUT=Capture
PIN_ENCODER_I2S_IN=Input Audio
PIN_ENCODER_656_IN=Input Video
PIN_ENCODER_OUT=Output
PIN_WRITER_INPUT_IN=Input

i'll be exploring this quite a bit as the results i got from another software encoder was much better than the hardware onboard...
what was the drawback to using this before? what's changed?

i might even get a hvr1250 if it works decent...
[no other hvr low profile cards that have 2 tuners]

just about everyone's using soft encode for anolog side in MCE thesedays...and it works quite well...

The only people that use software encoding in MCE are those that dont have the luxury of hardware encoder.

I'm still going to recommend everybody sticks with hardware MPEG2 encoders since they have many advantages over software encoding. The only reason I've added this is because there are a lot of NZ users buying the HVR3000/4000 devices due to our mix of DVB-S and DVB-T here, and there have been several of these users disappointed to hear the analog side of this otherwise good device is unusable. In summary, I think software encoding is less than ideal, but they have the option to try this if they need to.

(we have one major channel here in NZ that isnt available via DVB-S/DVB-T so users need analog to get that channel)

[stustunz]

i got no sound on hvr4000
sorry testing is over for today i had 20min window
i dont really need it just wanted to see if it would work

[pBS]

i just wanted it to be able to use a low profile card, none with both tuners i know of..
[haupp. brand with hardware encoders + low profile]
plus i'm curious if another card i have that the haupp drivers seem to keep 'taking over' will work also.. [drivers think it's a haupp card, can't seem to stop it and have both work]
it works very nicely with the wdm plugin..
but native would be much better...

can we do svideo in with this?
[need changes in ini? or just set svideo as normal in config?]

[sub]

Yes, you should be able to set it to use svideo in the config app.

The HVR-2200 I have is a dual tuner hardware encoder analog / digital hybrid, and on a low profile board. I suspect the HVR-2250 will be pretty much the same but NTSC/ATSC/QAM needed for the US.