[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On 30 Nov 2004 at 8:31, Cook, Garry wrote: > >> although the answer to #1 has me confused again. > > Maybe I can add to your confusion ;-)
Actually Marvin, you cleared up quite a bit for me. Thanks for all of the great information! I do have a few remaining questions which I'll ask in-line in the relevant areas... >>> From what Wayne says, the PVR250 may be better for me, > because while I >> don't have HDTV capabilities right now, I will most likely want them >> in the future, and the 350 sounds like it's no good for this. > > The 350 is a good choice for displaying a standard NTSC source on a > standard NTSC TV set. > > What is your display? I run a projector that the PVR-350 can't drive > anyway, so for me it's a no-brainer, I use a PVR250. I'm still a noob, so just getting used to the new acronyms. My main TV has an Svideo input, which I believe is NTSC, please correct me if I'm wrong. Therefore, it does sound like the 350 would be a good bet for me, as the output should work for my TV. My question then becomes, 'Do I NOT need a VGA card (GeForce4 or similar) if using the PVR350 output?'. If the answer is that I do NOT need an additional video card (I can just SSH into the box from another PC, so won't need a monitor), then the extra $50 for the PVR350 will be well spent. > Both are useless for HDTV. Go here: http://www.pchdtv.com/ to see > what's required for HDTV on MythTV. > >> Although >> previously I was leaning towards the 350's, thinking that the decoder >> would be useful for keeping CPU low during playback (probably going >> to run this on an old PIII 800). > > The 350 will help this, but if you are thinking of adding > HDTV capability later, a PIII-800 > is not enough (someone on the list is going to disagree, but why > endure the pain. Besides, the current pcHDTV card probably won't run > on your motherboard, even if it was fast enough.) So, if you'll be > upgrading this box later to faster hardware to do HDTV, at that > point you won't need the decoding half of the 350 because you'll have > CPU clock cycles to spare, or maybe you'll use a display card that > includes some MPEG decoding in it, so why bother? > > If you are going to leave this machine as it is for > watching/recording standard TV, then > buy a PVR350. > > I would go with the PVR250. With it, your PIII-800 will be > able to record a program while > watching it or while watching something that you recorded earlier... > but not much else, and then move it to the new faster HDTV box that > you are going to build for capturing standard TV on it. I might be able to convince the wife to keep this PIII 800 (we were going to upgrade her to a P4 2.4), and give me the new box for the Myth Project. If so, then I won't need to worry too much about upgrading for a while, and could probably go with cheap cards without hw encoders, although I might just go with a 250/350 combo anyway. HDTV is not in my immediate future, but I know that I will want it eventually. I guess I'll burn that bridge when I come to it. [snip] > So, you have 2 choices for standard video. Use a PVR350 and let it do > the encoding of video to MPEG as well as decoding the MPEG back to > video for the TV set, or use a PVR250 to capture the signal and > encode it to MPEG for the computer, and let the computer decode the > MPEG and send it through your VGA display card for display on any > display device you want. > [snip] > Marvin Hmmm... This sort of answers my first question, whether or not I need a standard VGA display card. Sounds like maybe not. Please let me know if I've misunderstood. Garry W. Cook, CCNA Network Infrastructure Manager MACTEC, Inc. - http://www.mactec.com/ 303.273.5050 (Office) - 720.220.1862 (Mobile)
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