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<h1>BMK MPEG encoder cards</h1>

<p><font size="+2" color="red">
Note: The MPEX card is out of production, please save your time and don't ask BMK about it.
</font></p>

<p>
  Those cards used to be manufactured by <a href="http://www.bmk-electronics.de/">BMK Elektronik</a>.
</p>

<h2>BMK MPEX MPEG2-Encoder</h2>
<p>
  A Philips EMPRESS-Chip based PCI Board for Realtime MPEG-2 encoding.
</p>
<p>
  It is a PCI-card based on the Philips SAA68xx
  (EMPRESS) MPEG-2 encoder
  and the SAA7134 Videodecoder and PCI bridge.
</p>
<p>
  The MPEX board is available in two flavours:
  With terrestrial TV tuner or
  with four composite and one s-video (y/c) inputs.
</p>
<p>
  All functions are fully supported by GPLed drivers without
  hassling with proprietary microcode portions.
</p>
<p>
  The driver in our download area is based on the v4l2-drivers by Gerd Knorr.
  MPEG-2 output is only possible in transport stream format.
  The driver is in an early stage. TS output works but no
  setting of encoding parameters like bitrate or GOP-size.
  All specs are open and available without NDAs.
</p>
<p>
  <a href="downloads/kfir/mpex.tar.gz">Download sourcecode</a>
  for the driver and the development-tools.<br>
  Note that the Linux 2.6.x mainline kernel already contains
  a driver for the MPEX board, just load the saa7134 module.
</p>
<p>
  Please subscribe to the
  <a href="http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mpeg2">
  mpeg2-encoder mailinglist
  </a>.
</p>

<h2>Kfir card, aka LinuxTV MPEG2 Encoder</h2>

<p><font size="+2" color="red">
Note: The Kfir card is out of production, please save your time and don't ask BMK about it.
</font></p>

<h3>Hardware</h3>
<p>
  It is a simple PCI board. It has a BNC connector for composite Video, a
  Y/C connector for S-video input and a 3,5 mm stereo audio input
  jack. That's all. Insert this board into an empty slot, install the
  driver and have fun.
</p>

<h3>Features</h3>
<p>
  The card supports MPEG-2 MP@ML up to 15 MBit. By passing module options
  to the driver you can select
  <ul>
    <li>input source: composite or y/c</li>
    <li>video input mode: PAL, NTSC, SECAM</li>
    <li>video out mode: PAL, NTSC</li>
    <li>picture size</li>
    <li>bitrate</li>
    <li>streamtype: program stream, transport stream, av elementary / packetized</li>
    <li>audio sampling frequency</li>
    <li>MPEG-1 or MPEG-2</li>
  </ul>
</p>
<p>
  There is one drawback: at this stage of our development you need to unload
  and reload the driver in order to change these parameters. Reloading the
  driver takes about 10 seconds.
</p>

<h3>Software</h3>
<p>
  Much to our regret Visiontech did not allow us to distribute the Kfir
  microcode in binary form together with our driver. The Kfir microcode is
  necessary to operate the board.
</p>
<p>
  Meanwhile, we have found a <a href="downloads/kfir/Makefile"> way to
  extract the code from the Windows driver</a> for the Kfir, which ist
  downloadable from their
  <a href="ftp://ftp.visiontech-dml.com/pub/Win9x%5CME/KFir/KFirAppVersion4.23/">public FTP server</a>.
</p>
<p>
  The Kfir driver is only an experimental version of a device driver for
  the Kfir encoder board. It is a kernel module which you have to compile
  on your system and insert into the kernel. After that you will get your
  analog input digitized on /dev/video. You can pipe that to the network,
  to a file, your MPEG2 decoder card or to your software decoder.
</p>
<p>
  As for now, we do not provide any further software like an editing
  suite, a player or playout solution.
</p>
<p>
  This card is not a toy. You should think twice before you order. First
  download our driver and try to understand it. Of course, our driver is
  released under the GPL.
</p>

<h3>Known Problems, Updates, Questions</h3>
<p>
  - MPEG-1 seems to make trouble.<br/>
  If you have any questions or problems with installing or running,
  subscribe to the
  <a href="http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mpeg2">
  mpeg2-encoder mailinglist
  </a>.
</p>


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