Broadcom PCI-E mini card enables Atom HD playback

[dotheDVDeed]

Broadcom press release:

www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s387278

Broadcom promo film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkhIZqOePps

User demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVgwD52wJY0

From what I see it only works with ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre. Any chance this could work with SageTV?

I currently have a MSI Wind Nettop 100 running as my SageTV server.
It has an unused PCIe mini card slot.
It doesn't have enough horsepower to playback HD mpeg recordings, though it serves them up fine for a couple of HD100 extenders.

Anybody think I should chase after this?

TIM

[reggie14]

Why do I get the feeling the thing is going to cost about the same as an HD extender?

But, I did find thing that was pretty interesting. Apparently Nvidia, Broadcom and Adobe are trying to figure out how to get Flash hardware video acceleration working with this thing and other video cards. I think that makes things like this more interesting, since you can't get things like Hulu working on extenders.

[jerryt]

This is presently working with any directshow filter player (Sage included).

You simply add the "Broadcom Video Decoder" as your video filter. See;
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/v...tart=20#p99618

You may have to use "Directshow Filter Manager" to raise the merit value of "Broadcom Video Decoder" before Sage will be able to see it as available.

[dotheDVDeed]

Thanks Jerry that was the confirmation I was looking for.

TIM

EDIT: Just need to confirm that DVB viewer isn't necessary, is it? Being a yank I'm not familiar with DVB (a European broadcasting standard, right?)

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by dotheDVDeed

Thanks Jerry that was the confirmation I was looking for.

TIM

EDIT: Just need to confirm that DVB viewer isn't necessary, is it? Being a yank I'm not familiar with DVB (a European broadcasting standard, right?)

You only need a Directshow player, such as Sage. I was using DVBviewer (A Directshow player) because it works my ATSC tuner and I already have the license. I could have used Sage, but for my laptop it was not worth buying another license.

[Chriscic]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Why do I get the feeling the thing is going to cost about the same as an HD extender?

It only adds $30 to the cost of the system.

This looks pretty cool to me; I wasn't even aware this solution was on the horizon. I wonder how this compares overall to an ion-based solution. I would think for HD playback it's a wash; I suppose for gaming the ion would be significantly superior, but either way you're hamstrung by the Atom so you aren't going to be playing Crysis.

I'm tempted to pick one of these up but only wireless G doesn't cut it; what good is HD playback going to do me if I can't stream wirelessly from my server?

I saw in a seperate article that the HP Mini also has an ion-based option as well as of today, but I didn't see it on the HP website.

[Taddeusz]

Of course this is only needed because Intel is too lazy to put a video chip with offload for MPEG2 and H.264 along side the Atom.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

It only adds $30 to the cost of the system.

This looks pretty cool to me; I wasn't even aware this solution was on the horizon. I wonder how this compares overall to an ion-based solution. I would think for HD playback it's a wash; I suppose for gaming the ion would be significantly superior, but either way you're hamstrung by the Atom so you aren't going to be playing Crysis.

I'm tempted to pick one of these up but only wireless G doesn't cut it; what good is HD playback going to do me if I can't stream wirelessly from my server?

I saw in a seperate article that the HP Mini also has an ion-based option as well as of today, but I didn't see it on the HP website.

ION is a better way of solving this. It's less costly than an addon card, preserves the slot for other uses, and gives you a huge 3D boost over the broadcom chip approach which does video well but not 3D.

[Chriscic]

Originally Posted by mikesm

ION is a better way of solving this. It's less costly than an addon card, preserves the slot for other uses, and gives you a huge 3D boost over the broadcom chip approach which does video well but not 3D.

I tend to agree with you, although I think Ion actually adds more to the cost of the system, in part because of Intel's monopolistic pricing (I recall reading that it's like $25 for the Atom + chipset, but $40 for the Atom alone).

I did see that with the HP system you could add the Broadcom card or internal 3G card, but not both. Not good.

[Lahr]

I can't get my 70012 to work with sage but it works with Hulu and Total media. Does anyone know how to set it up to work with Sage? Yes I have read the post here.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Lahr

I can't get my 70012 to work with sage but it works with Hulu and Total media. Does anyone know how to set it up to work with Sage? Yes I have read the post here.

1) You have to raise the merit value of the broadcom video decoder from "Do not use" to "normal" with "Direct Show filter manager".

2) Then add it as additional filter in sageproperties or select it from the GUI if it shows up without the edit.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Why do I get the feeling the thing is going to cost about the same as an HD extender?

But, I did find thing that was pretty interesting. Apparently Nvidia, Broadcom and Adobe are trying to figure out how to get Flash hardware video acceleration working with this thing and other video cards. I think that makes things like this more interesting, since you can't get things like Hulu working on extenders.

There very cheap on ebay less then $25
BCM70010 or BCM70012 HD Decoder

[Lahr]

Originally Posted by jerryt

1) You have to raise the merit value of the broadcom video decoder from "Do not use" to "normal" with "Direct Show filter manager".

2) Then add it as additional filter in sageproperties or select it from the GUI if it shows up without the edit.

Did that and Sage still does not use it. Video chunks audio is fine.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Lahr

Did that and Sage still does not use it. Video chunks audio is fine.

You need to determine what video codec filter sage is using;
1) Either look in the sage debug log for the line where it builds the playback graph. (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...076#post149076)
2) Or install FFDshow and set as your audio codec filter, then during playback you will have an icon in the system tray. When you open this FFDshow audio icon the first items listed in the menu is all the filters in use with the current playback graph.

If a video codec other then Broadcom video filter is listed, then
1) try building the correct graph in graphedit [32bit(http://shark007.net/files/GraphEdit_x86.exe)], if the Broadcom video filter connects, the problem is a filter hijacking the graph.
2) Identify the filter been used with the above methods and lower it's merit value.

[heatvent]

Can anyone explain how to do this in english. Do I need ot selecte Broadcom Video Decoder for all Video Filter selections in the video setup for Sage (h.264, mpeg-2, etc.)?