New H.264 hardware support with IC

[PuzZLeR]

Greetings,

There's a new integrated chip (IC) that will be available this month (March 2007) from Fujitsu to lighten the burden of the CPU intensive encoding of H.264/AVC. Hopefully I've created some smiles today (for those that may be unaware as of yet).

http://www.eeproductcenter.com/micro/brief/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196603532

What exactly does this thing do? In other words, is it something you attach to your PC or DVD player, or other? Would it work with software like Nero Recode or x264, or will it be proprietary hardware that runs on its own program?

Forgive my lack of knowledge if my questions are low-level. If anybody can enlighten me and other H.264/AVC enthusiasts on this very excitiing product we may all benefit from it.

More information is available if you Google MB86H50.

Thanks in advance!

[BJ_M]

it will have to be built into something like an hardware encoder or special motherboard -- maybe a year or so done the road after a new chip is released ...

THEN software has to be written to take advantage of said chip -- maybe another 6 months down the road , sometimes less if there is a need ..

such hardware already exists -- so I don't see it as anything to get to excited about ...

[PuzZLeR]

Thanks for your answer BJ_M,

Like I said, I'm limited in know-how about this stuff so it's rather new to me.

Is there any way a person like me can take advantage of it? This chip can't be on sale if it would be currently useless with anything available today. I don't mind buying some extra equipment to get it working either. Can you, or anybody else reading this, post any links about it, or anything else that you may have experience with?

Currently, as most here, my current encoding is done overnight or when I'm at work. I would love a hardware-based solution that speeds this up drastically.

Thanks!

[BJ_M]

Sony also has AVCHD camcorder which has HD H.264 hardware encoder chip in it.

Mainconcept is showing off their new hardware encoder - MC-P 512 SD. it does both h264 and mpeg2 up to D1 resolution ... it is not cheap , then again other hardware encoders from sony and the like are in the $20,000 range ... Sonic's HD-DVD / Blu-Ray encoder solution with authoring software would be in the $40,000 range ...

A software encoder on a fast fast machine (dual xeon dual core) using either mainconcept encoder (software) or sonic encoder (software version) IS darn fast (I can attest to that) ..

Most (like all) high end encoders require a SDI stream - so with a HDCAM deck and/or a decklink or aja card plus related hardware and software .. you can be set back another $50,000 to $125,000 (or more)

[BJ_M]

On the bright side -- this is where mpeg2 encoding was 10-12 years ago price wise ....

[PuzZLeR]

That expensive huh? But I also suppose that you can't just drop by your local electronics shop and just "pick one up" either.

I had a feeling much of this equipment was really Hollywood domain for now. Since this Fujitsu chip was only about $120US-$130US, I figured we were on our way to a home hardware solution much sooner.

I'm curious about this product as well - an accessory that uses the USB 2.0 port, but I heard it sucked in quality, was not really that fast, and was a scam or something. Anybody try it yet? Here's a link:

http://www.cwol.com/ipod-accessories/instant-video-to-go-ads.htm

Or here's another item:
http://www.everythingusb.com/mobilygen_mg1264.html

Ok, I'm trying here. However, an ideal solution would be hardware that can recognize and work with good apps like Recode or x264, because software that hardware companies make with their products usually sucks.

Anyhow, like you said, it was expensive to make DVDs, and MPEG-2, a decade ago. Today, we can process MPEG-2 on a PC at near real-time and then author and burn it to a disc in minutes. I suppose when we could one day do this for H.264 and blu-ray/HD-DVD there will be another "new and exciting" format demanding new hardware that encodes "SuperAVC H.269" and "Violet Blaster" discs etc.

Sigh.