Hardware-based WM encoding yet?

[duncan]

Just wondering if there are any windows media format hardware based encoders available or on the horizon.

I really want to be able to have the QUALITY of the PVR250 when viewing locally and with recordings but also be able to stream live tv which you can't do with the PVR250.

Or alternatively, is streaming of MPG2 on the horizon?

[DonK]

Streaming of either format is on the horizon with the new Beyond TV Link client. You will be able to stream live tv and recordings in either format providing your network has the bandwidth to support it.

This means: If you're using a HW encoder or you're trying to stream high bitrates over 802.11b wireless, don't expect it to work without stuttering. 802.11g wireless might be a better option. If you have 10/100/1ghz ethernet, you'll be fine.

But yes, it is coming very soon.

[duncan]

So, no dice on the hardware based WM format then? It would obviously be a lot more efficient (bit rate wise) for streaming live tv.

I'm actually as much interested in wide area streaming (like to my office at work from my box at home) as I am in LAN at home streaming. I'm assuming with mpg streaming we'll still have the option to set the bit rate lower than the normal recording default then?

I have 768K upstream on my cable modem so the bandwidth shoudn't be an issue.

Thanks.

[genesis]

There is hardware-based WMV encoding on the horizon. In theory the Radeon X800 and Nvidia 6800 both have the ability to hardware accelerate WMV encoding, but good luck finding any evidence of this beyond marketing hype in press releases. Nvidia's and Ati's next-gen budget gpus (6600 and x700) will also have theoretical support for hardware assisted encoding.

The only source of any real value I've been able to find on the subject is Tom's Hardware's Coverage of the 6800 launch. Though they list only hardware assisted WMV decoding, that contradicts these slides from Hardocp, that show support for WMV encoding up to HD resolutions.

The toms hardware article does say that "No changes to any program or video files are necessary to take advantage of the acceleration decoding features, as the driver intercepts all DirectX calls and forwards them directly to the video processor. In the case of MPEG 1/2/4 encoding, however, special software is required. Adobe has already announced support in upcoming versions of the After Effects suite." I'm assuming the same is true for WMV encoding as well.

Though later in that review they test the 6800's apparent ability to do hardware assisted decode, and it actually uses more CPU than a 9800 or 5900. So, I guess the moral of all this is, 'yes, hardware asissted WMV is on the horizon, but don't hold your breath'. NVidia needs to write drivers that actually make proper use of the Video Processor, and whatever application (BTV) you want to use with it, needs to code specific support for it. I think it's going to be some time, till all the stars align, and we get hardware wmv.

[duncan]

Not the answer I wanted to hear obviously but its a great answer nevertheless!

Thanks for the details.