Bluecherry Releases GPL'd MPEG-4 Driver 45
azop writes "Today Bluecherry released a GPL'd driver for its multiple-input MPEG-4 hardware compression cards. The driver supports audio and video capture from 4-, 8-, and 16-channel single-card encoders using the Video4Linux and ALSA APIs. More information about the driver and its features can be found on Bluecherry's development blog and on Ben Collins' personal blog. Bluecherry is the first Linux software company to release a complete driver based on Linux kernel APIs (Video4Linux and ALSA) for multiple-input hardware-compressed MPEG-4 capture cards under the GPL. The cards are designed for security applications (digital video recording), but other applications could potentially make use of the compressed streams and Video4Linux API integration. An H.264 version is 'in the works.'"
Re:Patent pools! (Score:5, Interesting)
I thought this Slashdot story... ...led us to believe otherwise - at least if the stream you encode ends up being used commercially; and some interest groups tend to believe that having an ad on your site where the video is played back = commercial exploitation.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/02/1114235/The-MPEG-LAs-Lock-On-Culture [slashdot.org]
Compares with the Hauppage unit? (Score:4, Interesting)
Anybody know how this differs from the Hauppage USB<->mpeg4 encoder's driver?
This is primarily aimed at the security market (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually have one of their cards and I must say it works quite well. For full D1(720x480) you only get 7.5 frames/sec from 16 cameras, but for security that is plenty. I think the 4 port cards may be able to do 30 fps per camera. Version 1 of their software is a bit kludgy. It works, but needs help. Version 2, supposed to be a complete rewrite, is due out next month. If you are interested in good quality security hardware take a look at their stuff. bluecherrydvr.com [bluecherrydvr.com] I don't work for them, just am a happy customer.
Cheers,
the_crowbar
Re:First? No. (Score:3, Interesting)
The Hauppauge 1212 is a similar sort of device. It had a community built driver pretty much when the device was released. It was quickly supported by MythTV.
The only thing missing is a firmware update utility. Dealing with this device in Windows (for firmware) gives me a great appreciation for the Linux driver.
The community is quite up to the task if they are given the opportunity.