CODECS
FOR MCE
With
the upocming release of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
(MCE) 2005, a lot of people are interested in building MCE compliant
systems, but aren't quite sure of the exact details and specs that
are involoved.
One
of the most frequently asked questions is about the need for a CODEC
(COder/DECoder) in Media Center. Most people assume that because
you have a hardware MPEG2 encoder that you don't need anything else
in order to watch TV - but due to how the whole process of capturing
and encoding the television signal works, you do need a CODEC as
well.
In
order to help understand why this is, please take a look at the
flowchart below for an example of how the MCE machine works to let
you watch a live TV broadcast:
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STEP
1: A singal from your cable TV or antenna is fed into
the NVTV Tuner Card (the Hardware MPEG2 Encoder).
STEP
2: The NVTV Tuner Card then encodes the TV signal into
MPEG2.
STEP
3: The NVIDIA DVD Decoder then translates the MPEG2 signal
into somthing that can be passed on to your video card for output
to a screen.
STEP
4: The finished images are then transmitted from your
video card to your screen.
So,
based on this, its clear that an MCE system needs more than just
a Hardware Tuner Card and a Video card - in order for the MCE system
to play live television, recorded television, or playback DVDs it
will need to have an MPEG2 CODEC like the NVIDIA DVD Decoder.
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