What are “hard” and “soft” codecs?
Hard codecs are hardware codecs, such as the Sony DVBK-1 or “DVGear” chip, the divio codec, or the C-Cube / LSI Logic DVxpress MX. You supply power and raw video at one end, and get compressed video out the other end in real time. Flip a switch and pump in compressed video, and raw, uncompressed video comes out. Soft codecs are software modules that do the same thing, such as the DV codecs supplied by QuickTime, Microsoft, or MainConcept. Modern computers are feasily ast enough that soft codecs can compress or decompress in real time or even faster. Typically, a Pentium or PowerPC running faster than 300 MHz or so will run a soft codec faster than a hard codec.
