Video Encoding Accelerator

[funkpuppy]

I was wondering if there were < $2,000 video encoding accelerator boards for PCs to take raw video or digital video from a camcorder and encode it using MPEG-4, etc. If so, what are some of the products out there that are considered the best?

Thanks...

 

[MrCoyote]

Dazzle makes some good products, as far as the reviews I've seen. CompUSA now carries their products. Do you just need digital inputs or analog too? If you need both, their Hollywood DV-Bridge can convert to and from digital/analog. But I believe it uses only the DV format, not MPEG-4. For MPEG-4, their Digital Video Creator II comes with a PCI card. But it doesn't have DV input.

The DVC II is selling for $349 at CompUSA. Not too bad, considering you get some good editing software with it, and can burn MPEG-4 movies to CD.

 

[funkpuppy]

The DVC-II looks nice, but this is going to be used for commercial level distribution. A seminar that is being staged will have all the talks recorded and then transferred to CD-ROM. Will this encoder produce a decent picture from the raw video? The video may come from digital cameras or it may not... we don't know what the equipment is going to be. I would assume it would not be the weakest link in this process...

Thanks for the info so far!

 

[MrCoyote]

Oh, commercial/broadcast quality is what you want. I really don't know of any broadcast quality boards for PC offhand. Those I mentioned are pretty much for home users. You may want to go to a retail store and pick one up to try. You could always return it. Maybe someone else here could list some other options.

 

[Batti]

Try VideoGuys

 

[Mday]

there are no hardware MPEG4 parts out as far as i know.

if this is for commercial purposes, spend that $2000.