CODECS FOR MCE - ASI SKU 31493

With the upcoming release of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005, a lot of people are interested in building MCE compliant systems, but aren't quite sure of the exact details and specs that are involved.

One of the most frequently asked questions is about the need for a CODEC (COder/DECoder) in Media Center. Most people assume that because you have a hardware MPEG2 encoder that you don't need anything else in order to watch TV - but due to how the whole process of capturing and encoding the television signal works, you do need a CODEC as well.

In order to help understand why this is, please take a look at the flowchart below for an example of how the MCE machine works to let you watch a live TV broadcast:

STEP 1: A signal from your cable TV or antenna is fed into the NVTV Tuner Card (the Hardware MPEG2 Encoder).

STEP 2: The NVTV Tuner Card then encodes the TV signal into MPEG2.

STEP 3: The NVIDIA DVD Decoder then translates the MPEG2 signal into something that can be passed on to your video card for output to a screen.

STEP 4: The finished images are then transmitted from your video card to your screen.

 Based on this, its clear that an MCE system needs more than just a Hardware Tuner Card and a Video card - in order for the MCE system to play live television, recorded television, or playback DVDs it will need to have an MPEG2 CODEC like the NVIDIA DVD Decoder.