I am a novice in digital video, and my question may sound stupid. I am looking at 2 product Wintv-pvr model350 and wintv-pvr model 250. Among the difference, the model350 has hardware decoing and model250 does not. For details, see http://www.hauppauge.com/html/products.htm#pvr.
I know that hardware encoding takes load off the cpu. But,
in what terms, is it really advantageous to have the hardware decodidng, versus using the software decoding? I have a dvd player on my pc, and it plays any dvd well without any special hardware decoding chip(?), using software decoding only(I assume). What is the real benefit. Thank you.