[pwest]

Hi:
I've got a 2.4 GHz P4 Shuttle system w/a PVR-250 (Roslyn) and the Shuttle CV20 TV out card running BTV 3.4. Recording and playback work fine, but the CPU usage on playback is quite high (80%, or so) using the default mpeg decoder, and not much different using the Nero decoder that I have.

The integrated AGP graphics core on the Shuttle is the SiS 651/315 chipset and according to the SIS web page, WinDVD and CyberlinkDVD support their mpeg hardware acceleration. Indeed, when I installed CyberlinkDVD, it plays recorded mpeg files with <30% cpu usage, and looks great. BUT, BTV does not show me this decoder as an option. I haven't been able to find a demo download of WinDVD to try so I don't know about it.

Can someone explain relationship between the codecs that BTV is looking for, and the codecs that come w/the various DVD players (e.g. why do the nero and nvidia codecs show up but the Cyberlink and others don't). Is BTV just looking for a select few? (if so, which ones?).

BTW, the Hauppage decoder would not install on my machine--no idea why, the install program just aborts with no message.

Thanks for any ideas or help
Phil