The codec talk was fun.

That said, Nuvico is MPEG-2, streaming via network via a seperate chipset at a proprietary H.263, which I might add is EXACTLY what every H.264 out there today is, a PROPRIETARY H.263.

H.264, as we've been tuned to understand it through cute marketing in all our favorite publications, does not actually exist. It's no different than all the hype associated with megapixel and IP cameras. The manufacturer spending the money to advertise in the publication is also writing the articles about their super awesome-o compression, and/or pushing the subject of IP/megapixel video costing the same as analog. I digress... Truth be told, bus architecture today cannot support the workload TRUE H.264 requires.

Any schmuck can apply an H-series codec to a DSP and call it something, H.264 for example. Aver, TI, Infineon, Freescale, Philips, whoever... if you're writing an H-series codec to their DSP, it's a proprietary H.263.

With regard to hardware compression, and as someone who is a patent holder of three hardware-based compression algorithms, I'd further argue its court admissibility. As an expert witness for digital video evidence in one of the largest cities in the US, so often have I come across instances where video captured by the "H.264" DVR of the month contains I, B, and P frame issues, a commonality in H.263 algorithms. Intra-prediction, the process by which hardware-compressed video is applied, has been known to cause inaccuracies and macroblock motion estimation errors.

it is MPEG4 and if you believe in super compression then i won't burst your bubble also about the tooth fairy

Actually, since the WJHD316 is old enough that MPEG4 was not very common yet, and they call their MPEG-4 DVR a MPEG-4 DVR(WJRT416) so I think it's a derivitive of MJPEG - Though I could be wrong.

The latest in fast transmission for video is H.264 video CODEC. This is an MPEG4 derivative CODEC and is intended specifically for fast transmissions speeds. I would search for a system that has this as a video coding option. My next best suggestion would be a variable bit rate MPEG4. Both options are readily available in the market.

In addition look for systems that allow you to reduce frame rate, resolution (size) and quality. I think this thread is for embedded units though you mention an PC card in your post. If you are looking for embedded systems, I'm not familiar with any H.264 ones that I really like. I know GSP has a nice MPEG4 version.

My company 3xLOGIC and many others make a PC based system that supports H.264 as well as MPEG4 with the variable bit rates, resolution etc. etc.. that will enable a user to 'tweek' the best possible image quality and speed for their needs.

Aventura Technologies and I believe GE but maybe not in USA makes an H.264 embedded DVR for many years now. With respect to H.264 there are many different profiles and some perform better than others. Alot of progress has been made since it was introduced as a standard back in 2003. In fact, the latest version is know as scalable video coding or SVC, which is actually much better than the baseline AVC profile. It has the ability to properly manage substreams which is key when we talk about network transmission. H.264 while called MPEG4 Part 10, is in no way, shape or form closely related to the older MPEG4 Part 2, which utilized Huffman not Arithmetic algorithm. It is a horse of a different color.

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264 is the best because it uses variable bit rates and only sends the changing frames down when necessary depending upon the configuration of the I, B, P frames.