[MEncoder-users] pullup question

[Scott Larson]

On Sat, 2009-01-24 at 12:04 -0600, Matyas Sustik wrote:
> Scott Larson wrote:
> > station wanted to send a different stream to the cable company, they'd
> > have to buy another encoder which is a needless expense (some stations
> > here have been using the same encoder for almost ten years).
> 
> I deduce that you mean some kind of hardware encoder. 

Stations around here use Tandberg encoders and Harris Flexicoders. 

>  Hopefully, software
> encoding will be able to replace the old technology.  Maybe mencoder one day?

Obviously these realtime encoders use software just as mencoder runs on
hardware. Hardware encoders have dropped in price dramatically. Our CBS
affiliate spent over $250,000 on their first encoder twelve years ago.
It required eight CPUs to do motion compensation with each CPU
processing individual quadrants of forward and backward frames in
parallel, searching for blocks to match. If a block fell on a quadrant
boundary, the encoder couldn't match it.

Hardware encoders now cost $10,000-$20,000, they have specialized
hardware for motion compensation that is faster than any CPU, and are
MUCH more efficient.