suggestions for good MPEG encoder dev kit, embedded hard disk dev kit

Does anyone know if there is a dev kit available for an MPEG encoder
ASIC - preferably one that
I could connect to a real-time video source as input and connect to an
FPGA board for post processing...
In otherwords an MPEG ASIC dev kit with a lot of IO options.

Also can anyone suggest a (separate, additional) dev kit that would
support reading and riding to a hard disk, preferably one that would
come with its own HDD controller onboard, that could be talked to via
an external microproc or FPGA.

thanks

On Mar 1, 12:10 pm, "wallge" <wal...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Does anyone know if there is a dev kit available for an MPEG encoder
> ASIC - preferably one that
> I could connect to a real-time video source as input and connect to an
> FPGA board for post processing...

If you already have an FPGA, why use an MPEG ASIC? You can encode MPEG
in your FPGA.


> Also can anyone suggest a (separate, additional) dev kit that would
> support reading and riding to a hard disk, preferably one that would

Again, if you have an FPGA, why do you need an external "development
kit"? If you are willing to use standard parallel ATA (as opposed to
the let's-line-Intel's-pockets SATA drives) it is fairly trivial to
interface to a hard disk.

Well
(A) the encoder IP for the FPGA is VERY
expensive, (B) I am not going to write an MPEG encoder from scratch.
thats why i'd rather have an ASIC
and just pay for the chip itself.
Also I am doing a lot of other processing
on the FPGA and would like to not have
to worry about saving FPGA logic/ external memory access
for the the MPEG encoder.


On Mar 1, 12:36 pm, "larwe" <zwsdot...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 1, 12:10 pm, "wallge" <wal...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know if there is a dev kit available for an MPEG encoder
> > ASIC - preferably one that
> > I could connect to a real-time video source as input and connect to an
> > FPGA board for post processing...
>
> If you already have an FPGA, why use an MPEG ASIC? You can encode MPEG
> in your FPGA.
>
> > Also can anyone suggest a (separate, additional) dev kit that would
> > support reading and riding to a hard disk, preferably one that would
>
> Again, if you have an FPGA, why do you need an external "development
> kit"? If you are willing to use standard parallel ATA (as opposed to
> the let's-line-Intel's-pockets SATA drives) it is fairly trivial to
> interface to a hard disk.

On Mar 1, 12:46 pm, "wallge" <wal...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Also I am doing a lot of other processing
> on the FPGA and would like to not have
> to worry about saving FPGA logic/ external memory

In that case, the best "evaluation platform" is probably a PC with a
PCI MPEG encoder card and a hard disk :)

Video encoder and decoder ICs tend to be terribly difficult to get
without NDAs, precisely because of all the expensive IP in them (and
the horrific thought that someone might build a device that doesn't
comply with whatever DRM bullshit the MPAA's bought politicians are
trying to peddle at the moment).

I know that I could just send pre-encoded
video to my FPGA and skip the encoder ASIC
step, but the whole point of my project is to put together
an embedded system, which a desktop computer is not part of.
Or at least proof of concept for an embedded system...

On Mar 1, 1:01 pm, "larwe" <zwsdot...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 1, 12:46 pm, "wallge" <wal...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Also I am doing a lot of other processing
> > on the FPGA and would like to not have
> > to worry about saving FPGA logic/ external memory
>
> In that case, the best "evaluation platform" is probably a PC with a
> PCI MPEG encoder card and a hard disk :)
>
> Video encoder and decoder ICs tend to be terribly difficult to get
> without NDAs, precisely because of all the expensive IP in them (and
> the horrific thought that someone might build a device that doesn't
> comply with whatever DRM bullshit the MPAA's bought politicians are
> trying to peddle at the moment).

On Mar 1, 1:44 pm, "wallge" <wal...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I know that I could just send pre-encoded
> video to my FPGA and skip the encoder ASIC
> step, but the whole point of my project is to put together
> an embedded system, which a desktop computer is not part of.
> Or at least proof of concept for an embedded system...

"PC" does not imply "desktop computer". Look at embedded PC solutions
from Advantech, BCM, etc.