Is PCI-E based capture card better than PCI based? What is the different between hardware compression and software compression card?
The bandwidth of PCI-E is significantly higher than that of PCI, which means PCI-E based capture card can sample higher video resolution for more channels simultaneously.But with PCI based capture card, you probably can connect at most (and may even have problem) 8 channels of video with resolution at 720×480(D1), unless you use special motherboard, which is expensive.Most capture cards (typically using chips such as Conexant bt8x8, cx2388x, or Philips 7130, etc) on the market are software compression cards. These cards just sample analogy video/audio data into digital data. Compression is still processed in CPU and controlled with software. This is so-call software compression.Hardware compression means compression to be processed in chips (such as TI). This way significantly reduces CPU loading.Software and hardware compression have their advantages and drawbacks.Software compression use CPU to compress video/audio data. But CPU resource is quite limited. Even with the most high-end
The bandwidth of PCI-E is significantly higher than that of PCI, which means PCI-E based capture card can sample higher video resolution for more channels simultaneously. But with PCI based capture card, you probably can connect at most (and may even have problem) 8 channels of video with resolution at 720×480(D1), unless you use special motherboard, which is expensive. Most capture cards (typically using chips such as Conexant bt8x8, cx2388x, or Philips 7130, etc) on the market are software compression cards. These cards just sample analogy video/audio data into digital data. Compression is still processed in CPU and controlled with software. This is so-call software compression. Hardware compression means compression to be processed in chips (such as TI). This way significantly reduces CPU loading. Software and hardware compression have their advantages and drawbacks. Software compression use CPU to compress video/audio data. But CPU resource is quite limited. Even with the most high
