Michael Bochynski wrote:
On Mon, 2005-10-24 at 13:41 -0400, Michael T. Dean wrote:
[...]
IMHO, the PVR-350 is a waste of money (and I wasted money on one) in
today's world. It made sense when 720x480 MPEG-2 decoding strained
general-purpose CPU's, but any processor that's worth using in a Myth
box (1GHz or better) will barely notice the effort. I'm using an NVIDIA
card (and not using the TV out on my PVR-350) because it has so many
advantages:
- OpenGL support
- Choice of resolution, overscan, etc. (allows you to choose the
best combination of scaling, size, position, etc. for your needs)
- Choice of outputs (i.e. built-in TV out, using VGA to a VGA to
NTSC/PAL converter, using VGA/DVI to a monitor/digital TV, etc.)
- If you get a 5200 or better, ability to support HDTV when you
decide to switch
- Is not a single-purpose device, so it continues to be useful even
if you stop using Myth. (OK, I don't think it's possible for someone to
stop using Myth once they've started, but it's the principal of the matter.)
And only one disadvantage:
- Does not provide the placebo effect for users, so video quality is
significantly worse. ;) (Which actually means you must learn how to
configure it for good video quality. With a PVR-350, you just need to
learn how to configure it and you get good quality--the PVR-350 is an
all or nothing configuration because it doesn't give you the options
that I mentioned as a benefit above, so you can't configure it for
poor-quality output.)
OK, so the NVIDIA proprietary drivers are the real disadvantage, but
they're much better than the ATI drivers, so if you've got to pick one,
NVIDIA's the way to go.
Mike
Mike,
Thanks for suggestions. before spending any money I will play around
with settings.
However, honestly, the advantages of NVIDIA card you presented are not
overwhelming. The MythTV box will be used for MythTV only, nothing
else, hence OpenGL does not matter, am I right? I don't even have, and
don't plan to have, a regular monitor/LCD at home which I could use :)
Signal (MythTV) goes to TV out only.
It matters. MythGame and MythMusic will make use of OpenGL.
Also, something he didn't mention is that the PVR 350 will not display
your kernel boot, BIOS POST, or lilo/grub menus. The nvidia card WILL.
That's a serious advantage, IMO.
Right now I output TV to my receiver and then to TV. While HDTV is a
nice-to-have, i do not expect to have it in the next 6 - 12 month,
while I will watch TV in the next 6 - 12 months :) Hence having DVI,
HDTV and so on is not the highest priority. I will probably want to
add it,
I am going solely after the picture (TV) quality.
350 is the best, but I have a 350 and an nvidia FX 5200 too, and I use
the 5200 for tv-out. I'm starting to think the 350s are a waste of money
too.
I do not mind proprietary drivers, since I hope I have my
compile-from-source times behind me, starting with the (very) early
Linux times.
Good quality on the 350 will require the 0.4.0 ivtv driver. You may or
may not have to compile that from source depending on your distro.
I know, however, that ATI (proprietary) drivers are worse than NVIDIA
ones. BTW, which NVIIDA card is worth looking at?
FX 5200 128M AGP is nice.
--
Jesse Guardiani
Programmer/Sys Admin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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