could some one lead me to good articles on encoding and decoding

[cableguy44]

im trying to get better informed about encoding, im gonna buy a card with a 10bit encoder instead of 8bit i realize that probably means it can read info faster, but what that exactly affects i dont know, also mpeg 1/2/4 standards im not sure about, and also if some one could infom me on video cards, i have been told 128, 256 mb cards arent that important but the number of pipelines and clock speed are what are more important, i am just trying to be more informed any info on either of these topics is appreciated, thanks

 

[Baked]

What exactly are you encoding? Mini-DV? DVD? TV? VHS? In any case, check out Doom9.net, lots of good info on encoding of all kinds.

 

[tiap]

If you are referring to a video card...
You don't need video at all to encode. Any cheap vid card will do it.
A video capture card is probably what you are thinking of and an old 32 mb will do that just fine. I still use one on a backup system for full dvd quality with no problems (skipped frames) etc.
If you are referring to a real time encoding card......
This is a different ball game. A good one costs in the thousands. Ones selling for in the hundreds aren't worth it imop, they're not what they are cracked up to be. Spend the money on the other hardware and do software encoding.
You need a fast cpu(s), lots of fast ram, fast hard drives and a stable mb running minimum software, with as little overhead as possible. There are lots of free, shareware, unbloated progs for this.
Big learning curve. See below

Amost endless info