HDTV Streaming from TV server (1 Viewer)

[No1 Dummy]

Can anyone please give me a simple answer regarding HDTV streaming from the TV server to other PCs????

If I have powerful PC running the TV server application with a digital terrestrial TV (DVB-T) card, can I have any old PC to view the programmes in HDTV format? Basically does it translate the stream from H.264 to mpeg-2 or does it just forward the digital data to the client PC and I therefore need 3GHz dual core PCs or high end and expensive graphics card in the client PC to watch the programmes?

 

[tourettes]

No transcoding is happening, so the clients are getting the stream as it was broadcasted.

 

[No1 Dummy]

Shame but it would be a very good enhancement to the application. There must be millions of people out there with older 2nd PCs or even laptops (with WiFi) that could display the 1920 x 1080 video but are not capable of doing the Mpeg-4 decoding in real-time.

 

[globaldonkey]

Move to Aus bro...... all our DVB broadcasts (incl HD) are still mpeg-2

Even mpeg-2 at that kind of resolution will push older hardware. I'm trying to do 1080p mpeg-2 on a 1.6ghz laptop client, and it stutters. SD channels (576p) are ok, but not HD.

Also, I wouldn't recommend doing that kind of high bit rate video over WiFi. MPEG-2 at that resolution would need about 30mb/sec

 

[No1 Dummy]

Granted that older low-end laptops won't do it but 128MB video cards with hardware mpeg-2 decoding are $10 per doz. The trick is to use the right CODEC. The ones supplied with PowerCinema 6 maximise the graphics hardware so the CPU is idling. I prefer MediaPortal in general but the CODEC is worth checking out. Try it out with their evaluation version. Just install it but don't even bother starting the application and see if it improves MediaPortal performance.

 

[globaldonkey]

Well I think you've answered your own question about doing a transcode at the server from mpeg-4 to mpeg-2. If you're buying video cards to do mpeg-2 HA, then you might as well get one that does mpeg-4 HA as well. All the entry level ATI cards do it now. I thought your point was that you wanted to avoid buying new hardware by doing a transcode at the server.

My point was that I have a laptop that has an onboard graphics chip that doesn't do any HA, and it just won't run mpeg-2 at such high resolutions very well. Ergo, a transcode of the mpeg-4 stream at the server to an mpeg-2 stream buys my situation nothing, and I still need new hardware. Hence I'm not sure it is a valuable feature.

To your initial point, you don't need 3ghz dual core if you get an entry level card that has mpeg-4 HA on it. The ATI 3450 costs $50. Put one of those in, get a DXVA compliant codec like PowerDVD 8, and you can probably run it on a 2ghz P4.