[vdr] Re: other MPEG Decoder cards?

["Jean-Claude Repetto" <jc@repetto.org>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Markus Schorer" <ms@plain.de>
To: <vdr@linuxtv.org>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 10:56 AM
Subject: [vdr] Re: other MPEG Decoder cards?


> hi,
>
> see my comments:
>
> Martin Hoffmann wrote:
> >
> > I have a Hollywood+ (same as DXR3), too. And i always thought it has
> > somekind of OSD function !? Because for dvd playback, which was the
initial
> > intention of the card, subtitles must be displayed. I guess it is
capable of
> > doing somekind of overlay ...
>
> yes, it can display spu-streams, which is (is i understand it) a
> substream
> to be displayed (i don't know the actual encoding, i think mpeg2).
> spu streams have size limitations, have to be muxed in on the fly ...

The encoding is RLE.
The main limitation is that it can display only 4 colours simultaneously, so
the VDR menus would have to be redesigned.

> > However i'm unsure if such a complex osd that vdr has will be possible
to
> > show !? But there is no other way, unless you decode the mpeg stream,
add
> > your osd to the pictures and encode it to mpeg again. But this way it
eats
> > much too much cpu time :-)
>
> see my earlier idea:
> if we need a osd, we filter the i-frames out of the mpeg-stream (2 per
> s)
> decode them, overlay the osd, encode again and display them.
> i think this should not be too cpu-intensive AND give almost the same
> look&feel as the siemens osd (and should not be too complicated to
> program).

I think this should be useful for displaying teletext (more than 4 colors) ,
but not for menus and subtitling.

> > btw: Has the DXR3 output any advantage over the dvbs output ? (except
for
> > timeshifting with a dxr3 and a dvbs) ? As far as i know it can also only
> > show mpeg1/2 - just as the dvbs card !???
>
> it has a ac3-capable digital output and is rather cheap.

It can display NTSC streams in PAL60 (useful for Zone 1 DVDs).
I don't remember if it has RGB outputs.

Jean-Claude