From owner-freebsd-multimedia Tue Aug 26 01:29:10 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id BAA09601 for multimedia-outgoing; Tue, 26 Aug 1997 01:29:10 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rah.star-gate.com (rah.star-gate.com [204.188.121.18]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id BAA09592 for ; Tue, 26 Aug 1997 01:29:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rah.star-gate.com (localhost.star-gate.com [127.0.0.1]) by rah.star-gate.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) with ESMTP id BAA00841; Tue, 26 Aug 1997 01:28:37 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199708260828.BAA00841@rah.star-gate.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0gamma 1/27/96 To: Luigi Rizzo cc: tinguely@plains.NoDak.edu, freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG, sales@omt.com Subject: Re: Regard to phone call about FreeBSD drivers In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 22 Aug 1997 14:58:59 +0200." <199708221258.OAA16039@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 01:28:37 -0700 From: Amancio Hasty Sender: owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Okay, Well, OmniMedia is very happy to provide us with all the tech info that we will need to write a driver for their mpeg encoder / decoder / full duplex audio PCI card (phew thats a mouthful) but wait there is more the cards video / audio components are fully programmable. The break down is this : 1. Bt848 PCI + tuner / *true* full-duplex soundcard provide a very low cost solution for audio / video conferencing. Assuming that the Bt848 card costs $100 , a decent full duplex sound card around $120 . Thats about $220 to $250. If you already own a full duplex audio card then you save $120 or so. All encoding/decoding done in software. real time mpeg encoding for audio / video is out. 2. OmniMedia's PCI board: video capture for software encoding / decoding using dec's 21230 video codec chipset. video engine on the board is programmable and so far there is microcode for h.261 and mpeg . In the near future , h.263 will available. full duplex audio plus echo cancellation via Analog's ADSP 2181 supported codecs: mpeg, g.711, g.722, g.728 I hope that we can use the hardware for H.323 conferencing which is of huge value given the licensing / patent issues surrounding h.323 . I think that the starting licensing fee for h.323 is around $100,000. We can use the publicly available implementation for h.263 which is part of h.323 however we are at risk that at any time anyone can demand royalty payments -- I for one I am not willing to get involved in writing an 263 codec and the one floating around the net needs a lot of work. The OEM version of the mpeg/decoder board I think it sells for $390 so the card is a little high however a lot cheaper than mpeg encoder/decoder boards of just about a year ago. Thats all folks for now till I get programming info on the board and have a driver for it 8) Enjoy, Amancio >From The Desk Of Luigi Rizzo : > > Hi, > > Spoke briefly with Dr. Redi . Basically, I am going to meet him tomorrow > > and just chat a bit more. I have dealt with OmniMedia in the past . > > Briefly, cause I am still at wor, does anyone have any cool ideas > > for next generation audio/video hardware -- desired codecs, > > telephony support, full duplex audio. etc,... > > Mark said almost everything on procedural issues (i.e. the need for > documentation, etc.). I suppose that it would be great to have one PCI > board which supports both video capture _and_ full duplex audio, > possibly with some (programmable) intelligence onboard to help in > compression/decompression tasks... > > Cheers > Luigi