[mpeg2] Re: Opinions of the Kfir board

[Kyler B. Laird <laird@ecn.purdue.edu>]

After my reply about the KFir board not
performing adequately for me, I decided
to go back and redo my testing with the
latest software I could find for my
viewing computer.

I upgraded to Linux 2.4.7-ac1.  I am
using a VIA sound adapter for playback,
and it has problems, so the latest
kernel driver is a good place to start
for improvements.

I also tried to use the latest Xine,
but it failed to play.  I backed it out
but I still have pieces of it (skins,
at least) in my working version.

Instead of trying to stream the data,
I stored it to a local disk, stopped
capturing, copied it the viewing
computer, waited for the copy to
complete, started the playback, then
paused the playback (big difference),
then resumed.

I am quite satisfied with the quality
of the KFir output.  At 1-4Mbps (at
vidsize=0x26), it is adequate for my
uses.  At 7Mbps, I think I had problems
moving the data from my HD to Xine fast
enough.  (I have not made any DMA
optimizations.)

So...back to thinking about my two-
channel VCR replacement.  I need to
figure out how to communicate with my
DishNetwork receiver.

Can we buy the KFir cards in the USA
yet?

--kyler