Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
(OP)
I don't have enough practical experience with video compression to answer this question so I'll ask you guys. I'm trying to spec out a video capture system running on a Pentium 738 (Pentium M 1.4GHz, Low Voltage) embedded computer system. It has "framegrabber" cards integrated that use the Conexant BT878 Fusion video capture chip. Each PC104+ card using this chip is able to accept 3 video inputs (6 total inputs) and present the data to memory/processor, but I would like to write the video to a hard drive. I believe this will require some sort of compression (correct me if I am wrong). I am unsure if this chip has a built in hardware encoder for MPEG, but it does not appear so. My question is this: If I want to write all 6 channels of video to a hard drive, do I need encoding and will I be able to do this seemingly large amount of software compression on this type of computer system?
The spec sheet for the PC104+ board with the video capture chip is at: htt p://www.ad logic-pc10 4.com/prod ucts/perip herals/dat asheets/MS MG104+.pdf
Thanks,
The spec sheet for the PC104+ board with the video capture chip is at: htt
Thanks,





RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
TTFN
RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
The other option, as you pointed out, is to write raw video files to disk. I am looking for hours of video, so I do not think this will be an option.
Thanks again for the help.
RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
The heavy computing is certainly required! It is so heavy, it is best left to dedicated signal processors not general purpose CPUs hence, it is really done on the video cards these days.
You might be able to utilize multiple video cards in one computer perhaps up to maybe.. 4? depending on the video compression chips and the level of compression desired.
No matter which way you go YOU WILL be going onto HDDs!
Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.- http://www.flaminsystems.com
RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
D1 is just 720x480, or 'DVD quality' (right?). There are consumer video grabbers that can supposedly match DVD quality. And many of them do the MPEG2 compression in hardware if for no other reason than to reduce the bit rate in the USB cable.
But even so, I doubt (a guess) that a Pentium M 1.4GHz system could handle six at once (running under a typical OS).
Something else to watch for: not all MPEG2 compressors are equal, in compression ratio or visible artifacts.
RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
JPEG2000 has better compression than MPEG4, and does not use key frames, so is more resistant to transmission dropouts.
TTFN
RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
Based on what I have learned from him and experience with one of these cards, the solutions here at http://www.viewcast.com/ are probably a good match to what you need.
These cards are architected so that multiple cards can be installed in one PCI bus system to build up the parallel processing channels you need.. All the video encoding/decoding is done with specialized hardware on each card.
Check out the Osprey cards at the above link...
RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
I've never worked with the Blackfin, but ADI has never been much of a speed demon when it comes to DSPs... first is TI for fastest compute, then Motorola, then ADI (reverse the order for ease of programming). Full D1 is 720x576, so I wouldn't count on the Blackfin getting you 30fps at that res with any appreciable quality.
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software
That, or some 400pin FPGA with an IP compression algorithm in it.
Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.- http://www.flaminsystems.com
RE: Video Encoding - Hardware vs Software