[ExtractStream] Re: Tivo capability in a PC

[Makhratchev, Konstantin]

Just a small clarification: my notebook with 400MHz Celeron (66MHz bus)
plays DivX;-) clips just fine. So you don't need an "an
order-of-magnitude more "uumph."" to move from MPEG2 to DivX;-)

Why chipmakers don't support it? Don't know. What I do know is how DivX;-)
first appeared. Microsoft developed MPEG-4 codecs quite a while ago, but
something stopped them from full-blown announcement. Beta drivers leaked out
and hackers dubbed 'em "DivX;-)" 

What stopped Microsoft? Copyright/MPEG licensing issues? Possible lawsuits
from movie companies? Exactly the same reasons might hold chipmakers from
releasing DivX;-) chips.

I'm quite sure the reasons we don't see DivX;-) chipsets are political, not
technical.

--my 2%

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Merchberger [mailto:zmerch7@y...]
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 3:35 PM
To: ExtractStream@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [ExtractStream] Re: Tivo capability in a PC


--- steve bryan <steve_bryan@m...> wrote:
> At 5:17 pm -0800 1/2/02, Roger Merchberger wrote:
> >I doubt you'd see the PC hardware be able to support this for
> quite
> >some time (at least 2-3 years...) Software DivX playback requires
> >around a 900Mhz Celeron or so, doesn't it? Anyway, my Dual Athlon
> >1600+ cannot encode SVCD (at any decent quality) at a 1:1 speed
> 
> I believe you are right about an unassisted PC. That is why you
> need 
> something like the Creative Labs Digital VCR which comes with a
> chip 
> that handles all the MPEG2 encoding and decoding. I don't think you
> 
> want to depend on the central processor to provide the bulk of the 
> processing capability. That is why it (the digital VCR) can be 
> recording TV in the background while the PC can be running an
> intense 
> game like Return to Castle Wolfenstein in the foreground (or a web 
> browser, spreadsheet, word processor, etc). This capability is here
> 
> now for about $100. The next such card that I want would do the
> same 
> thing but include a digital TV tuner. It would not have to include 
> any MPEG2 compression capability since the signal arrives
> compressed. 
> Unfortunately, the PCI cards that address this market so far are 
> about $400. Maybe Creative Labs is planning to make such a product.

Sure... I agree with you WRT MPEG2 - remember the OP said that _DivX_
was to be the "next greatest thing" - do DivX hardware chipsets exist
to make a "DivX VCR board?" If so, what do *those* boards cost?

MPEG2 software playback requires roughly a 200Mhz processor [don't
quote me on that - I don't own anything that slow anymore, unless you
count my Falcon030 & my many TRS-80 CoCo's] it's becoming to the
point that mainstream folks have enough "uumph" for mpeg2,
affordably. DivX is a whole 'nuther story, & requires almost an
order-of-magnitude more "uumph."

MPEG2 boards have been around for a little while, and the only people
getting hot-n-bothered by 'em are geeks. They're not _quite_ ready
for prime-time. When will there be a "DivX plug-n-play PCI
toasterboard" that a non-technical person can set up & use in an
afternoon, under $200? When *that* happens, DivX will become
mainstream. Until then, only the geeks will have 'em, or care about
'em.

Just my $0.02 CDN...
Roger "Merch" Merchberger



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