MPEG-4 Playback Hardware Decoder Reviewed

[Enchanter]

Tom's Hardware Guide has done a review on the hardware and here is the review.

Pretty interesting for those with 300Mhz or slower CPUs.

[benderman]

Very nice, but it only plays DivX4.02 or higher. Most of my videos are DivX3.11 or M$MPEG4. And maybe it will not work with future MPEG4-codecs. While there is no real standard for MPEG4-movies I think it's much better to buy a new cpu than buying that card. That chip could be nice as an additional feature of an mainboerd or graphiccard.

[Enchanter]

Given the legality issues with 3.11a, I would be surprised if they included support for it indeed. In addition, given that most of my videos are in DivX3.11 format and also the fact that most anime fansubbers still prefer that codec for compressing their subs, I have no need for the card.

However, it is still a nice addition for those who are targeted by the card (Slow computers and with mostly 4.x/5.x videos). We used to have a hardware decoder for VCDs about 6 years ago and now it's time for a hardware decoder for MPEG-4 videos (Even if it does not [unfortunately] support 3.11).