x264 for the OSD?

[manthony121]

I have been using my OSD for several years now.  Many of the videos I want to watch are encoded with the x264 codec.  I remember, a few years ago, a discussion that the CPU in the OSD wasn't powerful enough to handle x264.  Is that still the case?

I also have a LINK in the living room, but I don't want a full size computer sitting on top of my TV set in the bedroom.  The OSD is a perfect size.  It seems that there ought to be a market for a unit the size of the OSD that can handle x264.  Is that ever going to happen, or should I start shopping elsewhere?

[ChadV]

Well, the CPU hasn't changed, unless you found magic silicon gnomes to put a different one in your unit...?  (The DSP/CPU in the OSD is literally incapable of decoding H.264 with even the most efficient software and no other overhead.)

Neuros isn't planning on making any more consumer products.  The market just isn't big enough, and our design contracts for other companies is keeping us busy.  I would hope someone would make a small H.264 capable player/recorder, but I don't know of any offhand.

[heyrick]

Well, any Android mobile with >700MHz processor can do this - but none have video input that I know of...

For comparison, the OSD has a 200MHz processor. If it cannot handle full frame PAL (720x576), there's no way in hell it'll do H.264... To give an idea of the crunching involved, my 1.6GHz eeePC struggles with H.264 in HD, but my mobile phone can do it...