Instant DVD box (USBAV-700)

[Anonymous65]

Email:
>Problem description: I would like to know what mpeg >encoder chip is used in the USBAV-700 (Instant DVD) video >capture box. Thank you.

The chip we are using is the Philips SAA-7121 Chip.

Video Encoder Features:

Digital PAL/NTSC encoder
System pixel frequency 13.5 MHz
Accepts MPEG decoded data on 8-bit wide input port; input data format Cb-Y-Cr (CCIR 656), SAV EAV
Three DACs for Y, C and CVBS, two times over sampled with 10 bit resolution
Real Time control of sub carrier
Cross colour reduction filter
Closed captioning encoding and WST- and NABTS-Teletext encoding including sequencer and filter
Line 23 wide screen signaling encoding
Encoder can be master or slave
Programmable horizontal and vertical input synchronization phase
Programmable horizontal sync output phase
Internal colour bar generator (CBG)

***
I did a search on the Philips SAA-7121 Chip, but did not find much. It seems to be a general multimedia chip, or a "100MHz PC on a chip" running firmware to do its operations. It's the fastest encoder chip I have seen yet. The Winbond chip runs around 50MHz, and the Streammachine runs around 75MHz. I'm looking forward to hear some feedback from people that use the capture box...

[bpjenn]

I received one last week and tried it on two computers-800MHZ Pent III & 1GHZ Pent III. The first thing I noticed was the long delay before capture starts and then no matter what bit rate there were white spots all over the video. Also, the audio would not synch with the video. Maybe I got a lemon? I sent an email to ADS tech support last Friday and have yet to receive a reply.

[thxkid]

If these are "USB" just forget it I have tried a number of different USB Capture Devices and they all have a 5 to 20 second delay before it starts to capture and all had some type of audio sync problems, stay with a PCI Capture device.

[norm]

skittelsen - I think they misunderstood your enquiry. Find the INF file from the driver or install program and look up the vendor ID and that will tell you what mpeg encoder they are using. I'll try and find the details.

[Anonymous65]

I believe the Phillips chip is the encoder, I mean mpeg-1/2 encoder. I know Phillips makes video decoders, but the one mentioned is more than just a video decoder, it's the processor that encodes the video to mpeg and sends the data over the USB bus to the PC.

[bpjenn]

I received a reply from ADS concerning my problem with the USB Instant DVD. "This is a defective unit. I apologize for the inconvenience." I hope the next one I get works!

[TheInformer]

I think I'm going to stick with the Sony DVMC-DA2 media converter.
It takes the input and outputs it in DV format, which is just a hop, skip, and
a jump away from MPEG2 (or 1) files.

It's also a known commodity that works.

[norm]

skittelsen - No the philips SAA7121 is just a video encoder.All it can do is take digital data and convert it to analog so a TV can see it. It is used in the Dazzle DVC2 and the Provideo PV256C and countless other video capture products. The phrase video encoder means it encodes digital data to analog. In effect it is digital decoder to analog. It does not encoder mpeg.
Heres is the quote from the Philips data sheet.
"The SAA7120; SAA7121 encodes digital YUV video data to an NTSC or PAL CVBS or S-Video signal. "
Since there are no drivers posted at the ADS site for this usb product I can't tell you what is the mpeg encoder. If someone wants to post the *.inf file then I could tell you.

[Anonymous65]

OK, then it's still a mystery what chip it uses for mpeg compression. I guess I could try tech support again

[fourthquark]

It uses the Stream Machine SM2210 (same as used by Provideo PV256), according to the news release posted at http://www.streammachine.com .

[Anonymous65]

Then this unit should have very good quality video...