We generally talk about software encoders like Panasonic, Dvmpeg or LSX but what about the hardware equivalents that plug into the computer, PCI cards or......?

Is there a hardware encoder that will better the results that software encoders give at a similar cost price?

Any comments will be appreciated.

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), December 28, 1999

Answers

Hi Ross,

One local suplier (in Singapore) of various encoder products (when I enquire about broadway and MPEGator), suggest that the best ever product for MPEG1 hardware real time encoder is made by Optibase.

Said to be around 1800SGD if I am not mistaken, I didn't ask what is the exact model. He said the local VCD production house for Asian version VCDs uses Optibase to create their master disc.

Direct capture to MPEG1 only, so maybe very limiting for us to play with.

The MPEGator is not much cheaper, but the quality is said to be identical to DVMPEG, but is using hardware implementation of the same algorithm. I think you can see that DVMPEG has a greyed- out option for using hardware encoder.

The Broadway I used produces MPEG with too much artefact, not worth considering as encoder. Even the Broadway Pro version 4 (latest that utilises SIMD instruction on P-III) uses the same hardware. only the software has been upgraded.

Back to your main question, so far I don't think there is hardware solution that is as cheap as software solution (around 250USD for LSX Encoder 3, 80USD for panasonic)

have you heard of Heuris MPEG Professional? It was said to be the best MPEG2 encoder and is very expensive (more than hardware encoders), or its Quick Time plugin which is quite cheap.

Regards,

Rusman

-- Rusman Priyana (priyana@eudoramail.com), December 29, 1999.