Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, Feb 16, 2005 at 11:24:17AM -0500, Joseph A. Caputo wrote: On Wednesday 16 February 2005 11:09, Tom Hughes wrote: Well I've got a Leadtek Winfast A180BT GeForce MX4000 which is NV18 and the TV encoder on that certainly blows chunks. I'm using a sync Thanks, it's nice to have another data point. Wish I had another I've got an ASUS card with the NV18 (can't remember the model number) and the TV out seems quite decent. I'm switching through my amp and using composite as well and it looks decent to me. I should hook it up through SVideo but never quite got around to it. Hamish -- Hamish Moffatt VK3SB [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Tom Hughes wrote: The mode lines I'm using are: ModeLine 704x576pali 13.6 704 728 792 872 576 581 586 625 -hsync -vsync interlace ModeLine 720x576pali 13.9 720 744 808 888 576 581 586 625 -hsync -vsync interlace They seem to work OK on my set - scrolling up/down certainly indicates some sort of sync/timing problem anyway. Make sure you've wired to the correct pin on the SCART as well. I got it wrong the first time and connected to the sync out pin instead of the sync in so the TV wasn't getting the proper sync. Tom I finished the VGA-SCART converter... It finally worked after re-soldering some resistors (the vga2scart website mentions pin 18 as GND where it should be 17, Composite Sync GND) and using you working modeline for 720x576. Despite the promised improvement I found the image quality to be inferior to S-Video. All of a sudden the block artifacts in the MPEG stream become very clear (and disturbing at times), because there seems to be a total lack of correct scaling or smooth sampling/filtering of pixels. I see serrated edges all over the show and what I like to call 'missing lines', the image seems to be vertically compressed vertically and lines are left out to compensate for that. Diagonal lines in the video show this clearly. This is what I mean: \\ \\ -- instead of: \ \ \ \ \ I assume that the Xv overlay should take care of scaling and smoothing, right? Another thing is that even now, the TV doesn't display an interlaced image as smooth and fluid as the TV-out image w/ bob deinterlacing enabled. Seems that I am going to stick with S-video output from the TV-out along with bobdeint since that gives the best image by far. Sigh, wasted too much time on that converter. -- Jeroen ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
I finished the VGA-SCART converter... It finally worked after re-soldering some resistors (the vga2scart website mentions pin 18 as GND where it should be 17, Composite Sync GND) and using you working modeline for 720x576. Despite the promised improvement I found the image quality to be inferior to S-Video. Keep in mind that it is always *possible* to get a better signal with RGB than with S-video. It's also possible to get poorer quality if not careful more things are in your control to get right or screw up. All of a sudden the block artifacts in the MPEG stream become very clear (and disturbing at times), That's because you have a very high bandwidth now... you can see more flaws in the upstream part of the system. (Not a bad thing IMO). because there seems to be a total lack of correct scaling or smooth sampling/filtering of pixels. I see serrated edges all over the show and what I like to call 'missing lines', the image seems to be vertically compressed vertically and lines are left out to compensate for that. Diagonal lines in the video show this clearly. This is what I mean: \\ \\ -- instead of: \ \ \ \ \ That sounds like something is horribly broken especially since you made a sync combiner for that, it sounds like the TV isn't triggering on all the lines. If you fix that, things should lock up I assume that the Xv overlay should take care of scaling and smoothing, right? That's the point of the the direct connection... so you don't have to scale. If you record at 720x576, WYSIWYG... no scaling necessary. The only smoothing that should be done is what's necessary to prevent aliasing in the case of resizing the image. Another thing is that even now, the TV doesn't display an interlaced image as smooth and fluid as the TV-out image w/ bob deinterlacing enabled. Seems that That's a tough one to argue and difficult to quantify. Keep in mind that The image *is* interlaced with s-vid. I am going to stick with S-video output from the TV-out along with bobdeint since that gives the best image by far. Sigh, wasted too much time on that converter. I wouldn't give up on it quite so soon. It sounds like something is broken a bit with it. Just as an aside, one thing I've noticed with my converter is that since the whole system's bandwidth is extremely high, it's easy to see flaws that were otherwise filtered out. MPEG artifacts, abrasive motion, etc are all just illustrating how crappy SDTV is. Normally, other limits in the system mask these deficiencies. Whatever one choses more appealing to them is a personal choice, but it's entirely possible that a higher-quality picture is deemed as worse since it might expose otherwise hidden flaws in the system. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005, Minh Duong wrote: Does the FX5200 cards have mpeg2 hardware decoders? nVidia's site isn't clear on this. I think that some of them might, but I think it's only on the mobile versions. Anybody got any info on this? No, but XvMC is a partial MPEG2 decoder. It helps reduce CPU load when playing large MPEG2 (e.g. HDTV) streams. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 2/16/2005 7:47:21 AM [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2/16/2005 6:08:56 AM On Tue, 15 Feb 2005, Minh Duong wrote: Does the FX5200 cards have mpeg2 hardware decoders? nVidia's site isn't clear on this. I think that some of them might, but I think it's only on the mobile versions. Anybody got any info on this? No, but XvMC is a partial MPEG2 decoder. It helps reduce CPU load when playing large MPEG2 (e.g. HDTV) streams. -Cory Actually, the 5200 *does* have an mpeg-2 decoder on the card. This was confirmed by a couple users onthis list a few months ago. Also, nVidia has stated that the FX series cards are equipped with mpeg-2 decoders. I believe the drivers take advantage of that as well. Paul ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
I've spent literally years trying to get the g400 to look picture perfect under framebuffer/X/matroxset and have never succeeded. If you know anything more, I would love to hear about it. TVout solutions are a wildcard with any card. Most suck and are unknown as far as how they operate internally. Do you have a modeline that sets a proper ntsc resolution and timing? 720/640x480 @ 59.9 cycles/s? Yes, but proper ntsc resolution is not 59.9 Hz... it's 29.97Hz, interlaced. I use this: ModeLine coryntsci 14.3 720 760 824 910 480 484 492 525 interlace ... with a homebrew circuit to modulate RGB from the VGA at this proper frequency into NTSC Y/C and Composite. It is *NOT* a rate/scanline converter which is what almost all tvout cards use. If you use that modeline on a VGA monitor, it won't like it. I'm not sure what you mean by this. What interlacing? All I want mythtv to do is record a signal (interlaced since it's standard NTSC) and play it back exactly as it would have been sent to the TV directly; so that means recorded interlaced and played back, interlaced. Now that may (or most likely) mean packing two interlaced fields into a frame, but the video card should display the fields interlaced, one after the other. Which it can, but unless you are using production-quality hardware with video genlocking, what you record will not be exactly synced with what you get out. Any pointers on how to set configure all of this (the tv-out part for the g400) because after many years of searching, I just have not been able to find anything suitable. It's a lot more complicated than most people realize. Everyone wants a standards compliant NTSC modeline for their XYZ-brand card. Trouble is the one common component in all of them (the tvout scanline converter chip) is the *ONLY* part that is responsible for generating standards-compliant output. There's typically little or no control over that and any modeline tweakings are masked by its operation. Get thee to google for g400 tvout setup. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 07:31:54 -0500, Brian J. Murrell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yeah. OSD. On-screen-display. Perhaps you thought that by OSD I only meant the few overlays that pop-up over playing video. No. By OSD I mean the whole On-screen-display. So rather than follow established terminology you invent your own and expect everyone else to follow along? Pretty much everyone understand that an OSD refers to UI that's overlayed on the video rather than generic GUIs, except those that need to justify the fact that they've been talking out their ass. Exactly. I never said that the OSD needed to know about vsync. I said video playback needed to know about vsync. The OSD still needs to be able to display in a manner that is compatible with the video card's TV-Out mode, and for the G400, the only true replication of video broadcast display I have seen available is with DirectFB, which means that if you want to use DirectFB's CRTC2 TV-out for video display you also have to use that for the OSD display since using the X11/framebuffer TV-out (i.e. using the matroxfb_maven kernel module and matroxset) is mutually exclusive with using DirectFB. You can get quality thats indistinguishable from broadcast using nVidia cards. Please, get a clue before spouting off extremely inaccurate comments. No Isaac, my comments are not extremely inaccurate. You've made several statements about what is and is not possible that were flat out wrong. You tried to portray yourself as an expert when it's pretty clear that you have even done the basic homework. You've made claims about MythTV without even having a CLUE about how it's implemented. So yeah I think Isaac was pretty much spot on. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 07:59 -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: TVout solutions are a wildcard with any card. Most suck and are unknown as far as how they operate internally. That is true, for most, but not for the g400 -- with DirectFB. I understand what you are saying about the unknown (rather undocumented) internal operations, but one of the DirectFB developers did some great work for the g400 and utilized it's tv-encoder as it is supposed to be, producing a perfectly timed, interlaced, overscanned output that looks _exactly_ like TV. No tearing, no interlacing artifacts -- none of that. ModeLine coryntsci 14.3 720 760 824 910 480 484 492 525 interlace I will try that. But I have found that one modeline for one brand of video card just does not work with other video cards, so unless this is for a g400 specifically, I won't get my hopes up. Which it can, but unless you are using production-quality hardware with video genlocking, what you record will not be exactly synced with what you get out. But you can. I have done so for years using another PVR application that could utilize DirectFB and g400 in tv-out mode. Encoding artifacts aside, it was TV-picture perfect. You could flip between tv and the signal going through the g400 and they were identical in smoothness and picture size. Get thee to google for g400 tvout setup. Been there, done that. Nobody seems to want (or able to achieve) picture perfect output. There seems to be a lot of satisfaction with taking an ntsc signal and displaying it scaled to 800x600 on the framebuffer. That seems to be the state of the art with x11/framebuffer/matroxset. Sad thing is that it can look so much better. If anyone with a g400 is interested in seeing how good it can be, you need directfb and mplayer with the dfbmga video out driver. Use some source material that is suitable -- must be 480 lines, the more motion the better (to see the interlacing artifacts of X/framebuffer) but even just a ticker is sufficient to see it. Compare that with the mplayer on X/framebuffer with matroxset hacks. You will see what I mean. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 08:28 -0500, Donavan Stanley wrote: So rather than follow established terminology Established where? Here? I guess I have not been hanging out here long enough to know that while the world of set-top-boxes calls the display that it shows on the TV the OSD, myth folks use that to mean only the video overlayed portion of the display. But let's just move on OK? I will stand corrected and from now on I will only use OSD to mean the video overlayed portion if that is what we call it here. Just so I get my terms correct. what shall I call the rest of the graphical display? Can we move on and stop arguing about syntax now? There is so much more we can accomplish if we can decide to be grown up and not bicker about the small things. you invent your own and expect everyone else to follow along? But I didn't invent it. OSD means On Screen Display. Pretty much everyone understand that an OSD refers to UI that's overlayed on the video rather than generic GUIs, except those that need to justify the fact that they've been talking out their ass. So now you are going to tell me what I meant by OSD? You can't just take my word for it that I mean the whole graphical On Screen Display? You can get quality thats indistinguishable from broadcast using nVidia cards. You can with Matrox g4*0 cards too. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Brian J. Murrell wrote: snip ModeLine coryntsci 14.3 720 760 824 910 480 484 492 525 interlace I will try that. But I have found that one modeline for one brand of video card just does not work with other video cards, so unless this is for a g400 specifically, I won't get my hopes up. Ummmthe modeline is only specific to the monitor being driven, *not* the video card. In other words, the values in the modeline are determined by the requirements and/or limits of the monitor. It's the job of the video card driver to convert the modeline information into the specific information for the video card. While it is true that a modeline may work with one video card and not another that has nothing to do with the modeline itself and has everything to do with video card and driver capabilities. Probably the biggest video card/driver incompatability with the modeline Cory gave you is whether or not the card/driver can do interlaced modes or not. Other than that, I can't imagine a card that can't generate the relatively slow timings from *any* NTSC or PAL modeline. snip -- Michael J. Lynch What if the hokey pokey IS what it's all about -- author unknown ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Cory Papenfuss wrote: TVout solutions are a wildcard with any card. Most suck and are unknown as far as how they operate internally. I just recently found out that the TV-out of SiS chipsets (many, many HTPC barebones use them) are not capable of outputting interlaced material. Quite an important thing if you want picture perfect I'd say. I am trying to get the modeline right ... with a homebrew circuit to modulate RGB from the VGA at this proper frequency into NTSC Y/C and Composite. It is *NOT* a rate/scanline converter which is what almost all tvout cards use. If you use that modeline on a VGA monitor, it won't like it. I'm not sure what you mean by this. What interlacing? All I want mythtv to do is record a signal (interlaced since it's standard NTSC) and play it back exactly as it would have been sent to the TV directly; so that means recorded interlaced and played back, interlaced. Now that may (or most likely) mean packing two interlaced fields into a frame, but the video card should display the fields interlaced, one after the other. Which it can, but unless you are using production-quality hardware with video genlocking, what you record will not be exactly synced with what you get out. I am trying to get the modeline right for my TV set so that I can start using my homebrew VGA to RGB converter. I made it because CRT-1 output (ie. the VGA connector) IS capable of outputting interlaced material. It seems that all you nVidia owners forget that their vsync is controlled by OpenGL, which in fact is not supported on every video card in Linux. Oh and deinterlacing using bobdeint sucks donkey balls without vsync. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
So what chipsets/cards do ouput interlaced? Greg ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Actually, the 5200 *does* have an mpeg-2 decoder on the card. This was confirmed by a couple users onthis list a few months ago. Also, nVidia has stated that the FX series cards are equipped with mpeg-2 decoders. I believe the drivers take advantage of that as well. OK... I learn something new everyday. Can it do HD-res decoding? -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 2/16/2005 9:12:54 AM Actually, the 5200 *does* have an mpeg-2 decoder on the card. This was confirmed by a couple users onthis list a few months ago. Also, nVidia has stated that the FX series cards are equipped with mpeg-2 decoders. I believe the drivers take advantage of that as well. OK... I learn something new everyday. Can it do HD-res decoding? -Cory Not sure, but I'll post to the list when I get enough fundage together to purchase an air2pc card and an HDTV Ready monitor. ...now if I could just find some more stuff to ebay... ;-) Paul ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Brian J. Murrell wrote: On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 08:28 -0500, Donavan Stanley wrote: So rather than follow established terminology you invent your own and expect everyone else to follow along? Pretty much everyone understand that an OSD refers to UI that's overlayed on the video rather than generic GUIs, except those that need to justify the fact that they've been talking out their ass. Just to defend against your claims that "my" definition of OSD is out of my ass and contrary to what "everyone" thinks it is would a definition from the wikipedia be good enough for you? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-screen_display Or perhaps they are talking out of their ass too? Seems that people in this forum posting (3rd one down specifically) http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=fefe6362a1567350a062a780e7293b72p=86769#post86769 don't count in your survey of "everyone" above either. So my use of OSD is not really "so wrong" and your definition of "everyone" is not so much really _every_ one. b. Stop wining dude, if you have some useful input then post it. But don't go scrutinizing people's interpretations of concepts or forcing your interpretation on others. Better use common sense and unambiguous terminology to express your meanings instead. In my opinion, this list is ment to be informative and inspiring towards new developments. -- Jeroen ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
That is true, for most, but not for the g400 -- with DirectFB. I understand what you are saying about the unknown (rather undocumented) internal operations, but one of the DirectFB developers did some great work for the g400 and utilized it's tv-encoder as it is supposed to be, producing a perfectly timed, interlaced, overscanned output that looks _exactly_ like TV. No tearing, no interlacing artifacts -- none of that. Some of them can suck less, and may in fact be quite good. What I am saying is that unless you run a genlocked, synchronous 29.97 resolution with a 1:1 pixel-mapped input/output characteristic (i.e. the concept of overscanned and underscanned make no sense), it is *NOT* unprocessed. Nobody without big budgets and expensive proprietary cards can accomplish that. Everything else is a matter of degree on how much fudging gets done. But you can. I have done so for years using another PVR application that could utilize DirectFB and g400 in tv-out mode. Encoding artifacts aside, it was TV-picture perfect. You could flip between tv and the signal going through the g400 and they were identical in smoothness and picture size. Sounds like the fudging was minimized with that arrangement of software. It's still being fudged, however, so it's not perfect and unadulterated, sync-issue-free playing. Get thee to google for g400 tvout setup. Been there, done that. Nobody seems to want (or able to achieve) picture perfect output. There seems to be a lot of satisfaction with taking an ntsc signal and displaying it scaled to 800x600 on the framebuffer. That seems to be the state of the art with x11/framebuffer/matroxset. Sad thing is that it can look so much better. You can't get perfect, but I agree that upscaling NTSC 480 line up to 800x600 and then having the encoder chip descale it back is rather silly. At least start with an YYYx480 resolution modeline. Other than that, I've got no MGA card that's modern enough to even do Xv. Can't help with that. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
I just recently found out that the TV-out of SiS chipsets (many, many HTPC barebones use them) are not capable of outputting interlaced material. Quite an important thing if you want picture perfect I'd say. I am trying to get the modeline right That cannot be correct, since TVOUT is defined to be interlaced. Now, if you meant to say that it cannot play both fields of a interlaced content, I may believe that. I've got an NVidia card (MX-400) with such a horrendously crappy tvout chip on it, the most I ever see is 240 lines. The chip just plain blows chunks. For future reference, the following issues need to be taken into account (almost without exception): - The TVOut of regular VGA cards use a separate chip (or integrated into the GPU) to do the same thing as an scanline converter. Thus, they generally do temporal and spatial resampling to make the square peg of the computer-generated video fit into the round hole of an NTSC|PAL compliant video signal. - Modelines on such cards are only loosely related to the TVout video output. Tweaking things like over/underscan, interlacing, refresh rates, resolutions, etc are all filterd through the tvout chip of the above note. I am trying to get the modeline right for my TV set so that I can start using my homebrew VGA to RGB converter. I made it because CRT-1 output (ie. the VGA connector) IS capable of outputting interlaced material. It seems that all you nVidia owners forget that their vsync is controlled by OpenGL, which in fact is not supported on every video card in Linux. I'm now finally curious as to what VGA-RGB converter you are doing. VGA *is* RGB... unless it's just a cable to make it DB-15 (old-school 15-pin macintosh video connector) as opposed to H-DB-15 (15-pin VGA connector). What are you driving? -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 09:52 -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: Some of them can suck less, and may in fact be quite good. What I am saying is that unless you run a genlocked, synchronous 29.97 resolution with a 1:1 pixel-mapped input/output characteristic So, before we get into another syntax pissing contest and i am told I am talking out of my ass again, what exactly do you mean by genlocked, synchronous 29.97 resolution with a 1:1 pixel-mapped input/output characteristic? If you mean that the signal is encoded by the video card to the television exactly as it would have been by the original broadcast, (i.e. field interlaced, correctly timed with the picture the exact same size as it would have been originally) then yes, the g400 can do that. (i.e. the concept of overscanned and underscanned make no sense), Only in as much as you see exactly the same amount of the picture coming from the recorded version of the content that you would have seen if you watched it live. For example, if I watch a capture of CNN through the g400 using x11 on the framebuffer hacked with matroxset, I see more of the picture than I would see watching live broadcast television. The ticker at the bottom has a significant amount of picture underneath it. If I watch CNN live, I don't see the picture underneath the ticker and the ticker runs pretty much (within a scanline or two) along the bottom edge of my television. If I watch that same capture through the g400 using DirectFB's TV-Out, it looks _exactly_ like it would watching it live. I see exactly the same amount of the image as I would have watching it live. it is *NOT* unprocessed. Nobody without big budgets and expensive proprietary cards can accomplish that. Everything else is a matter of degree on how much fudging gets done. As far as my eye can see (and I see a lot of the artifacts that people around me watching do not see because they don't know what to look for), it's visually unprocessed. It looks exactly like it would have looked live -- size, viewable portion, smoothness, etc. As far as how the picture looks, I can take some stills with my digicam to demonstrate what I mean if you like. You will see the difference between live and x11/framebuffer/matroxset hacked. You won't with DirectFB. You can't get perfect, But I can. When I get a moment today (i.e. get a moment when somebody is not watching something), I will do a capture and take some stills describing exactly what I am talking about above and post links to the pics here. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 09:25:31 -0500, Brian J. Murrell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just to defend against your claims that my definition of OSD is out of my ass and contrary to what everyone thinks it is would a definition from the wikipedia be good enough for you? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-screen_display Or perhaps they are talking out of their ass too? That wikipedia definition applies to VCRs and the like. Were using the display was a spiffy new feature. If one to use your definition of OSD we could just shorten it to D since it's all on the screen. Why bother with the on screen portion at all? This isn't a Myth convention it's used widely by the users and developers of multimedia/HTPC apps to indicate the portions of the GUI that are overlaid on the video vs the user interface that gets displayed when no video is being played. And even it it wasn't widely used, it's STILL used in that context within Myth. Hey let's all play a fun game, let's all start calling books on paper displays and get all pissy when someone says what the fuck are you talking about?. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Hey let's all play a fun game, let's all start calling books on paper displays and get all pissy when someone says what the fuck are you talking about?. roflmao... :-) chuckle, chortle and all that. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wednesday 16 February 2005 10:03, Cory Papenfuss wrote: I've got an NVidia card (MX-400) with such a horrendously crappy tvout chip on it, the most I ever see is 240 lines. The chip just plain blows chunks. Cory, just curious, what TV encoder chip does your Nvidia card use? My old LeadTek GF4MX-420 card used an NV17 TV encoder and the output was beautiful. That card has since died and I'm now using the onboard GF4MX-440 from my Chaintech 7NIF-2 nForce2 boards, which uses an NV18 TV encoder, and, to quote you, it simply blows chunks. You're about the only other person I've ever heard speak of Nvidia TV-out that way, so I was just wondering if you also had the newer chip. -JAC ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
But also, the price difference is $30 Canadian for me to get either card. The 250 is $199 at BestBuy and the 350 is $230 for me from my Dude, check out Staples. They regularly sell the 250's for $149 CDN. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Jeroen Brosens wrote: snip . I must disappoint you here; first of all I have massive respect to Thomas Winischhofer, the developer/maintainer of the X driver for SiS chipsets, he has a well documented website on which he elaboralety describes every driver option that he squeezed out of the SiS chips. In the FAQ however, I only recently stumbled upon this: * Q: Why does output of interlaced video via TV show a comb-like interlace-effect? If the source material is interlaced and the TV output is interlaced, shouldn't this match? * A: CRT2 does not support interlace. Therefore, the driver can't feed interlaced output into the video bridge (which handles TV output, be it a SiS video bridge, be it a Chrontel TV encoder). The video bridge can only convert a progressive scan (=non-interlaced) input into TV-suitable interlaced output. The driver can neither change this nor control which of the frames sent to the bridge is the even/odd field. Long story short: If you want to output interlaced material on your TV without using a software de-interlacer, you need to add a proper Modeline for interlaced PAL/NTSC timing (easily found on the internet) and an external VGA-to-TV converter connected to CRT1. Otherwise you have to use a software de-interlacer. You have to acknowledge that is is a Very Bad Thing®. What I said about the interlaced material is not entirely true, but the result is still not quite useful. Damn bastards @ SiS. Oh well. Cory, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Jeroen has mis-interpreted the answer here. It does *not* say that TV-OUT does not do interlace mode. It says that CRT2 doesn't support feeding interlace to the the TV encoder. That has nothing to do with whether or not TV-OUT then interlaces output. -- Michael J. Lynch What if the hokey pokey IS what it's all about -- author unknown ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-16-02 at 11:40 -0400, Greg Estabrooks wrote: But also, the price difference is $30 Canadian for me to get either card. The 250 is $199 at BestBuy and the 350 is $230 for me from my Dude, check out Staples. They regularly sell the 250's for $149 CDN. Sweet. I'll grab one of them as well. I think I still want the 350. BestBuy was the only place I've seen them so far. -=/Thom ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Michael J. Lynch wrote: Jeroen Brosens wrote: snip I must disappoint you here; first of all I have massive respect to Thomas Winischhofer, the developer/maintainer of the X driver for SiS chipsets, he has a well documented website on which he elaboralety describes every driver option that he squeezed out of the SiS chips. In the FAQ however, I only recently stumbled upon this: * Q: Why does output of interlaced video via TV show a comb-like interlace-effect? If the source material is interlaced and the TV output is interlaced, shouldn't this match? * A: CRT2 does not support interlace. Therefore, the driver can't feed interlaced output into the video bridge (which handles TV output, be it a SiS video bridge, be it a Chrontel TV encoder). The video bridge can only convert a progressive scan (=non-interlaced) input into TV-suitable interlaced output. The driver can neither change this nor control which of the frames sent to the bridge is the even/odd field. Long story short: If you want to output interlaced material on your TV without using a software de-interlacer, you need to add a proper Modeline for interlaced PAL/NTSC timing (easily found on the internet) and an external VGA-to-TV converter connected to CRT1. Otherwise you have to use a software de-interlacer. You have to acknowledge that is is a Very Bad Thing®. What I said about the interlaced material is not entirely true, but the result is still not quite useful. Damn bastards @ SiS. Oh well. Cory, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Jeroen has mis-interpreted the answer here. It does *not* say that TV-OUT does not do interlace mode. It says that CRT2 doesn't support feeding interlace to the the TV encoder. That has nothing to do with whether or not TV-OUT then interlaces output. OK true; of course everything coming out of a TV-out is interlaced, nothing doubtful there. But it seems it can't tell field sync etc. from the signal that is being fed to the video bridge. And therefore I must either use the bob deinterlacer (others suck because they don't give full frame rate) but it, well, bobs (vertical jitter due to goin out of vsync every now and then). Maybe when my VGA-SCART cable works with X everything is sorted, but I will have to find a proper modeline for that. -- Jeroen ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Tom Hughes wrote: snip Well I've got a Leadtek Winfast A180BT GeForce MX4000 which is NV18 and the TV encoder on that certainly blows chunks. I'm using a sync converter on the VGA output to drive a RGB input on the TV now so I don't care, but when I tried the S-Video output it was horrible. Tom Tom, I just finished my vga2scart cable, from the circuit as explained on the site that is linked on the mythtv page of your website (http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/vga2scart/). Now I have to find the modeline to get a nice image; are you a PAL user, and if yes, could you explain what you did to get it working correctly? My tv image is now scrolling up/down and skewing a bit too. It definately needs the proper tuning, but what could be the best way to do it? Many thanks, -- Jeroen ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wednesday 16 February 2005 11:09, Tom Hughes wrote: In message [EMAIL PROTECTED] Joseph A. Caputo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Cory, just curious, what TV encoder chip does your Nvidia card use? My old LeadTek GF4MX-420 card used an NV17 TV encoder and the output was beautiful. That card has since died and I'm now using the onboard GF4MX-440 from my Chaintech 7NIF-2 nForce2 boards, which uses an NV18 TV encoder, and, to quote you, it simply blows chunks. You're about the only other person I've ever heard speak of Nvidia TV-out that way, so I was just wondering if you also had the newer chip. Well I've got a Leadtek Winfast A180BT GeForce MX4000 which is NV18 and the TV encoder on that certainly blows chunks. I'm using a sync converter on the VGA output to drive a RGB input on the TV now so I don't care, but when I tried the S-Video output it was horrible. Tom Thanks, it's nice to have another data point. Wish I had another option; unfortunately my TV only has composite in, so it's either a new TV or an expensive scan converter, and I don't have the budget for either right now. I'm sending my card with the NV17 chip in for RMA; maybe I'll be able to use that again someday. -JAC ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jeroen Brosens [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Tom Hughes wrote: snip Well I've got a Leadtek Winfast A180BT GeForce MX4000 which is NV18 and the TV encoder on that certainly blows chunks. I'm using a sync converter on the VGA output to drive a RGB input on the TV now so I don't care, but when I tried the S-Video output it was horrible. Tom, I just finished my vga2scart cable, from the circuit as explained on the site that is linked on the mythtv page of your website (http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/vga2scart/). Now I have to find the modeline to get a nice image; are you a PAL user, and if yes, could you explain what you did to get it working correctly? My tv image is now scrolling up/down and skewing a bit too. It definately needs the proper tuning, but what could be the best way to do it? Many thanks, The mode lines I'm using are: ModeLine 704x576pali 13.6 704 728 792 872 576 581 586 625 -hsync -vsync interlace ModeLine 720x576pali 13.9 720 744 808 888 576 581 586 625 -hsync -vsync interlace They seem to work OK on my set - scrolling up/down certainly indicates some sort of sync/timing problem anyway. Make sure you've wired to the correct pin on the SCART as well. I got it wrong the first time and connected to the sync out pin instead of the sync in so the TV wasn't getting the proper sync. Tom -- Tom Hughes ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.compton.nu/ ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
That cannot be correct, since TVOUT is defined to be interlaced. Now, if you meant to say that it cannot play both fields of a interlaced content, I may believe that. I've got an NVidia card (MX-400) with such a horrendously crappy tvout chip on it, the most I ever see is 240 lines. The chip just plain blows chunks. I must disappoint you here; first of all I have massive respect to Thomas Winischhofer, the developer/maintainer of the X driver for SiS chipsets, he has a well documented website on which he elaboralety describes every driver option that he squeezed out of the SiS chips. In the FAQ however, I only recently stumbled upon this: * Q: Why does output of interlaced video via TV show a comb-like interlace-effect? If the source material is interlaced and the TV output is interlaced, shouldn't this match? * A: CRT2 does not support interlace. Therefore, the driver can't feed interlaced output into the video bridge (which handles TV output, be it a SiS video bridge, be it a Chrontel TV encoder). The video bridge can only convert a progressive scan (=non-interlaced) input into TV-suitable interlaced output. The driver can neither change this nor control which of the frames sent to the bridge is the even/odd field. Long story short: If you want to output interlaced material on your TV without using a software de-interlacer, you need to add a proper Modeline for interlaced PAL/NTSC timing (easily found on the internet) and an external VGA-to-TV converter connected to CRT1. Otherwise you have to use a software de-interlacer. You have to acknowledge that is is a Very Bad Thing®. What I said about the interlaced material is not entirely true, but the result is still not quite useful. Damn bastards @ SiS. Oh well. We said the same thing, only in a slightly different way. It sounds like the SiS chipset is indeed broken in that respect... that it cannot even send the tvout chip a interlaced feed. Thus, he's saying you need to deinterlace it to put it into the framebuffer only to have the tvout chip use every other line anyway... so it's a 30-60-30 Hz conversion (or for you apparently 25-50-25 if you're doing SCART=PAL?) You are of course right, what I meant was: I made a VGA (D-sub 15) to RGB (Euro-AV/SCART) converter cable so I can plug it directly in the TV using seperate R, G, B and composite sync signals, as opposed to CVBS or S-Video input from the TV-out. I can produce a nice list of HOWTO links if you are interested. (Side note: ATI and Matrox cards output composite sync already, all other cards have seperate Hsync and Vsync and need this converter.) OK... that makes sense. So your converter basically consists of routing RGB where the belong, and combining the H/V sync as necessary? I have messed with composite sync, sync-on-green, interlacing, funky dotclocks, etc a fair bit in the past. My previous experience (Millenium and G-100) was that Matrox was second to none as far as weird options supported. Not sure if it's true anymore. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
RE: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
This is the most interesting thread I've followed for a long time. For what it's worth I am running Mythtv with DVB in Canada and gave up on getting good quality s-video out. I also have an Expressvu PVR that gives Excellent picture quality and it has become the benchmark. The problem with the PVR is that it is a piece of junk and only records based on a timed event. In an attempt to get decent quality video from Mythtv I went and bought a used Xbox ($139CDN) and loaded up a frontend. It is a little slow (only 64mb memory) and the picture quality is pretty good (way better that the nVidia 5600 and ATI Radeon 9200 I tried) but not as good as the PVR. I find it quite amazing that High Quality S-Video is so difficult to achieve. Greg -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.8 - Release Date: 2/14/2005 ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
RE: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 10:21 -0700, Greg Miller wrote: This is the most interesting thread I've followed for a long time. For what it's worth I am running Mythtv with DVB in Canada How are you capturing the DVB signal in Canada? Expressvu is (apparently) encrypted with a nagrivision variant which (according to my research at the time) is not decodable. I know some folks were working on it (at the time of my previous research) but had not gotten anywhere. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
RE: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-16-02 at 12:26 -0500, Brian J. Murrell wrote: On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 10:21 -0700, Greg Miller wrote: This is the most interesting thread I've followed for a long time. For what it's worth I am running Mythtv with DVB in Canada How are you capturing the DVB signal in Canada? Expressvu is (apparently) encrypted with a nagrivision variant which (according to my research at the time) is not decodable. I know some folks were working on it (at the time of my previous research) but had not gotten anywhere. I'd like to know as well, but I would venture a guess that the expressvu is feeding the mythbox, and you either have to control the channel with the built in event timer found on 3100's or you run two instances of the lirc and you have myth change the channel. Feel free to email me off list if you have another way. I'm most interested. Thanks. -=/Thom ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
But also, the price difference is $30 Canadian for me to get either card. The 250 is $199 at BestBuy and the 350 is $230 for me from my Dude, check out Staples. They regularly sell the 250's for $149 CDN. Best Buy and Future Shop also have them on sale quite frequently for that price, both in-store and online. Just picked one up last week at Best Buy to replace my POS second card (m179). ;) -- Joel ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 12:31:08 -0500, Thom Paine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Feel free to email me off list if you have another way. I'm most interested. Please don't take it off the list, there are lots of us who are interested. :) Alex ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
So, before we get into another syntax pissing contest and i am told I am talking out of my ass again, what exactly do you mean by genlocked, synchronous 29.97 resolution with a 1:1 pixel-mapped input/output characteristic? If you mean that the signal is encoded by the video card to the television exactly as it would have been by the original broadcast, (i.e. field interlaced, correctly timed with the picture the exact same size as it would have been originally) then yes, the g400 can do that. I'm not trying to be belligerent, just trying to clarify the common misconceptions about tvout cards and why the concent of a perfect output is for the most part impossible with consumer cards. When I'm saying perfect, I'm talking about an end-to-end system with pixel-clock synchronization every step of the way. The system would have to do the following: - Cable company sends broadcast quality video down the wire. - Capture card synchronizes (via a PLL) to the color-subcarrier and samples the pixels at an integer multiple of it. (i.e. genlocked capture for 1:1 pixel mapping and synchronous sampling) - MPEG encoding/decoding is done buffered and stored to the drive. - Playback would have to decode the MPEG, with enough buffers and time-base correction to insert any missing fields. - Decoded fields would be put into the framebuffer phase-locked with the original color subcarrier frequency captured (which doesn't really make sense in a time-shifted world, since the notion of time is now defined to by the computer's internal clock) - After this field is decoded and put into the vid card's framebuffer memory, the decoder would trigger the vid card to issue another field via a VSYNC. - This RGB data would then be encoded according to the NTSC spec, with the color subcarrier phase-locked to the horizontal sync at frequency 262.5 time x the horizontal frequency of 15.73kHz) - The vid card would then wait until the next field was decoded before scanning again... unless the decode was never accomplished. In that case the TBC-portion of the system would have to generate the missing field. In a real system, everything is clocked together... in a general-purpose computer like that, it cannot be guaranteed. Thus, many things run at their own clock (close, but not phase-locked and often not even frequency-locked). You can't get perfect, But I can. When I get a moment today (i.e. get a moment when somebody is not watching something), I will do a capture and take some stills describing exactly what I am talking about above and post links to the pics here. That's not necessary... I believe you. I do not agree that cannot visually see a difference equivalent to perfect, however. My own card that I build for VGA-NTSC was as close to perfect as one could get (or so I thought). A few months back I had a discussion with another guy on here who corrected me on the fact that my HCLOCK was (strictly-speaking) not phase-locked to the multile of the color subcarrier... thus it wasn't perfect. Nevermind the fact that I can get higher resolution on my TV from my computer than through a high-quality DVD player... it's still not standards-compliant and perfect. I grow weary of this :) -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Cory, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Jeroen has mis-interpreted the answer here. It does *not* say that TV-OUT does not do interlace mode. It says that CRT2 doesn't support feeding interlace to the the TV encoder. That has nothing to do with whether or not TV-OUT then interlaces output. -- I do not think you're wrong... I think that's the correct way to interpret that information. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
OK true; of course everything coming out of a TV-out is interlaced, nothing doubtful there. But it seems it can't tell field sync etc. from the signal that is being fed to the video bridge. And therefore I must either use the bob deinterlacer (others suck because they don't give full frame rate) but it, well, bobs (vertical jitter due to goin out of vsync every now and then). Maybe when my VGA-SCART cable works with X everything is sorted, but I will have to find a proper modeline for that. Then you'll be in my boat. Close, but no cigar. Actually, last night I turned off deinterlacing and couldn't see the tearing I had with the ATI card. Maybe all is well with the world now (and not wasting cpu deinterlacing to reinterlace). -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wednesday 16 February 2005 12:29, PAUL WILLIAMSON wrote: I am surprised to hear about all these horror stories of s-video being so bad. I've done s-video on an MX440 and an FX5200 plus, both with excellent results. The s-video out on my mediamvp is pretty good, but there is definitely a difference between that and my other two frontends. Seems like the latest generation of Nvidia TV-encoder chip (NV18) has significantly poorer output than the previous NV17 or Philips encoders used in previous generations. [snip] Am I just lucky? Yep; lucky to have a card with a 'good' tv encoder. -JAC ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wednesday 16 February 2005 10:03, Cory Papenfuss wrote: I've got an NVidia card (MX-400) with such a horrendously crappy tvout chip on it, the most I ever see is 240 lines. The chip just plain blows chunks. Cory, just curious, what TV encoder chip does your Nvidia card use? My old LeadTek GF4MX-420 card used an NV17 TV encoder and the output was beautiful. That card has since died and I'm now using the onboard GF4MX-440 from my Chaintech 7NIF-2 nForce2 boards, which uses an NV18 TV encoder, and, to quote you, it simply blows chunks. You're about the only other person I've ever heard speak of Nvidia TV-out that way, so I was just wondering if you also had the newer chip. I thought I'd be clever and get the VIVO one (this was 3 years ago). It uses the SAA7108, which from the datasheet is limited to 288 lines IIRC. I've actually talked with an NVIDIA engineering guy who explained how some of the newer ones work. They sound *much* better... and go to a more hard-coded tvout when using an appropriate size (e.g. 720x480) -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
RE: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
I know that discussion regarding decrypting DVB feeds is not allowed here. All the info you need is hereplease do not email me asking how to do it. My system is not running 100% yet and I am considering getting a PVR 350 and connecting it to my Mythtv box. Good Luck. Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Alex HarfordSent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 10:38 AMTo: Discussion about mythtvSubject: Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 12:31:08 -0500, Thom Paine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Feel free to email me off list if you have another way. I'm most interested. Please don't take it off the list, there are lots of us who are interested. :) Alex -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.8 - Release Date: 2/14/2005 Blank Bkgrd.gif___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 12:40 -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: That's not necessary... I believe you. I do not agree that cannot visually see a difference equivalent to perfect, however. Maybe this is so, but what do I really care beyond it looks perfect? Which I can get with the G400 and DirectFB. I have yet to see anything even close with the G400 X11/framebuffer/matroxset. This winds up devolving into similar discussions about harmonic perfection. What do I care if an audio signal is less than perfect beyond the range that I/we can hear? Oh, and I tried to use your ntsc modeline and got an error from X saying hsync out of range. My Monitor configuration is: Section Monitor Identifier Monitor0 Option DPMS true #HorizSync 28.0 - 78.0 # Warning: This may fry very old Monitors HorizSync 28.0 - 96.0 # Warning: This may fry old Monitors VertRefresh 50.0 - 76.0 # Very conservative. May flicker. DisplaySize 655 490 # mm # These are some Modelines that happen to work on many systems # Especially the 1024x768 has been thoroughly tested, even on Laptops Modeline640x480 25.175 640 664 760 800 480 491 493 525 #60Hz Modeline800x600 40.12 800 848 968 1056 600 601 605 628 #60Hz ModeLinecoryntsci 14.3 720 760 824 910 480 484 492 525 interlace EndSection Do I not also need a corresponding set of framebuffer timings to match the X Modeline? It was the framebuffer timings that I was referring to before when I said that one set of timings at a given resolution does not seem to work from one card to another. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wednesday 16 February 2005 07:31 am, Brian J. Murrell wrote: Exactly. I never said that the OSD needed to know about vsync. I said video playback needed to know about vsync. The OSD still needs to be able to display in a manner that is compatible with the video card's TV-Out mode, and for the G400, the only true replication of video broadcast display I have seen available is with DirectFB, which means that if you want to use DirectFB's CRTC2 TV-out for video display you also have to use that for the OSD display since using the X11/framebuffer TV-out (i.e. using the matroxfb_maven kernel module and matroxset) is mutually exclusive with using DirectFB. http://qt-directfb.sourceforge.net/story.html (though, the port is a tad old). Mutually exclusive. =) Besides, I thought you could run normal X apps on DirectFB through an emulation layer? Isaac ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 13:41 -0500, Isaac Richards wrote: Main video output loop is in NuppelVideoPlayer.cpp (OutputVideoLoop), which uses classes in vsync.cpp for that information. Sweet! Thanks for the pointer! b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 13:45 -0500, Isaac Richards wrote: Sounds like a driver limitation if you can't adjust the amount of overscan or set it to unscaled mode in X Exactly. No argument here. I think the base of the whole problem is that the matrox framebuffer driver does not put the card into it's true tv-encoder mode. I have already asked the g400 guru on the DirectFB dev list what the possibility of doing the correct register twiddling (i.e. that he does in DirectFB) in the framebuffer driver itself would be. Awaiting response. Myth _can_ adjust for that, though, by fiddling with the overscan settings in the playback options. Not as good as passing things through completely unscaled, but the displayed area would at least be right. Right. This is the real crux of the problem. I don't really care that I see a bit more of the picture -- the part that is normally overscanned out of the viewable area, but it's all of the scaling up and then back down that goes on that is visually unappealing. It's that that I have been unable to find a solution for using X11 and the framebuffer. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 10:27:29PM -0800, Scott Alfter wrote: On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 01:21:17PM -0800, Tim Fenn wrote: As an addendum, many newer TVs (particularly HD) tend to support DVI input - has anyone used this successfully, and more importantly, with good results? It works great on the 30 widescreen LCD I'm using...all it took was a modeline to generate 1280x768 (native resolution). How about 1080i? From what I understand, that hasn't been achieved via DVI (although nvidia supports it, I haven't heard a success story regarding it yet - driver problem?). -Tim -- Morals? I eat communism and $h!t America, brother. --Seanbaby ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Maybe this is so, but what do I really care beyond it looks perfect? Which I can get with the G400 and DirectFB. I have yet to see anything even close with the G400 X11/framebuffer/matroxset. For what most of us are trying to do (view it on a tv), it doesn't matter that much. I'm clarifying the notion of a perfect signal. Also, there are many times when some pieces of electronic equipment may not accept a signal that looks perfect, since it doesn't strictly adhere to the spec. Oh, and I tried to use your ntsc modeline and got an error from X saying hsync out of range. My Monitor configuration is: HorizSync 28.0 - 96.0 # Warning: This may fry old Monitors I'm not surprised. That's X protecting you from yourself. That modeline runs at 480i frequencies and is meant to be displayed directly on a TV. It has a 15.7kHz horizontal frequency. In your case, you have a VGA monitor connected and have (correctly) limited the minimum frequency to 28kHz. If you change that to 15kHz, X won't prevent you from using that frequency due to H frequency mismatch. It also will most likely not work with your VGA monitor and in fact may damage it. You initially asked for: Do you have a modeline that sets a proper ntsc resolution and timing? 720/640x480 @ 59.9[sic] cycles/s? That is what the modeline I provided does. Proper NTSC resolution and timing with 720x480 visible resolution at 15.7kHz Horiz, 29.97Hz vertical. Do I not also need a corresponding set of framebuffer timings to match the X Modeline? It was the framebuffer timings that I was referring to before when I said that one set of timings at a given resolution does not seem to work from one card to another. A modeline *defines* the framebuffer timings. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 14:13 -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: I'm not surprised. That's X protecting you from yourself. That modeline runs at 480i frequencies and is meant to be displayed directly on a TV. That's what I have. My TV is plugged directly into my video card with a connector that Matrox makes for doing that. It has a 15.7kHz horizontal frequency. In your case, you have a VGA monitor connected and have (correctly) limited the minimum frequency to 28kHz. Ahhh. Indeed. If you change that to 15kHz, X won't prevent you from using that frequency due to H frequency mismatch. It also will most likely not work with your VGA monitor and in fact may damage it. But I have a TV hooked up, so prob(?). You initially asked for: Do you have a modeline that sets a proper ntsc resolution and timing? 720/640x480 @ 59.9[sic] cycles/s? That is what the modeline I provided does. Proper NTSC resolution and timing with 720x480 visible resolution at 15.7kHz Horiz, 29.97Hz vertical. I will try it. Do I not also need a corresponding set of framebuffer timings to match the X Modeline? It was the framebuffer timings that I was referring to before when I said that one set of timings at a given resolution does not seem to work from one card to another. A modeline *defines* the framebuffer timings. So the Xserver Modeline is a substitute for the timings usually set with fbset/fb.modes? That I did not know. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
That's what I have. My TV is plugged directly into my video card with a connector that Matrox makes for doing that. Funky... I haven't heard of that matrox-ism. Is it connected to an S-vid or Composite port or something else (DVI, RGB, component)? If the former, than it's really just a tvout in sheep's clothing... :) (i.e. Matrox made a dongle required to get tvout of their cards) If you change that to 15kHz, X won't prevent you from using that frequency due to H frequency mismatch. It also will most likely not work with your VGA monitor and in fact may damage it. But I have a TV hooked up, so prob(?). It may or may not. Depends on above. I will try it. If you melt your stuff, you've been warned! A modeline *defines* the framebuffer timings. So the Xserver Modeline is a substitute for the timings usually set with fbset/fb.modes? That I did not know. Not a substitute so much as an equivalent representation of the same information. They both define the raster on the screen (visible, nonvisible, and sync). -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 15:00 -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: Funky... I haven't heard of that matrox-ism. Is it connected to an S-vid or Composite port or something else (DVI, RGB, component)? If the former, than it's really just a tvout in sheep's clothing... :) (i.e. Matrox made a dongle required to get tvout of their cards) Plugs into the vga port of the second head, splits it into svideo and composite. I think it must tweak something on the card to disable the vga because it's a plain cable, no circuitry. Cheers, Martin. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 15:00 -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: Funky... I haven't heard of that matrox-ism. Is it connected to an S-vid or Composite port or something else (DVI, RGB, component)? It plugs into the 2nd head 15pin standard vga connector on the card and has svideo and composite on the other end. That is for a G400 standard (in the bedroom computer) and the other option is for the G400 with the MJPEG junk in it and that is a whole break-out box with composite, s-video and audio connectors on it. If the former, than it's really just a tvout in sheep's clothing... :) (i.e. Matrox made a dongle required to get tvout of their cards) Could be. Not sure what it is exactly under the plastic moulding, and of course the other device, the whole breakout box, who knows. If you melt your stuff, you've been warned! :-) Didn't work unfortunately. I got an error in the console log from the matroxfb driver that it could not set 720 so used 736 instead. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 20:14 +, Martin Ebourne wrote: I did get that running 6 months ago. Certainly myth completely through XDirectFB is no good because it doesn't support Xv. But you don't need Xv if DirectFB puts the card into TV-Out mode and then XDirectFB uses layer 2 (it's this last part that I'm not sure will work or not). You need this in your directfbrc: matrox-crtc2 matrox-tv-standard=ntsc And possibly the following could be used to make XDirectFB use the CRTC2 layer: primary-layer=2 Then whether using the DirectFB output mode of mythtv will interfere with the X11/Qt, who knows. I am waiting direction from the directfb list. I can't remember what was wrong with myth using XDirectFB for the UI and using plain directfb for the video. Sounds like a good combination, but I think I had segfaults and by then had wasted over a month on directfb already, so dropped it. Be interested to hear if you do get it working well. Also with mplayer etc. working for mythvideo. Indeed. mplayer -vo dfbmga mode is sweet. I want mythtv to look as good. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
It plugs into the 2nd head 15pin standard vga connector on the card and has svideo and composite on the other end. That is for a G400 standard (in the bedroom computer) and the other option is for the G400 with the MJPEG junk in it and that is a whole break-out box with composite, s-video and audio connectors on it. So, it's a TVOUT, but it has one major difference... it's a second head that has its own refresh and modeline setup. I wasn't aware that this was what was going on. With that setup, if there's no scaling going on in the tvout part of the chip, it's possible generate a (relatively) exact modeline that's NTSC-correct. It sounds like through the DirectFB framework that's possible, from what you say. All the rants before were assuming a normal tvout setup. A VGA monitor plugged in, and a tvout chip (or part of the GPU) redoing the scaling. In both cases, I stand by the decoding genlock thing... where the decoding of video fields needs to by synchronised to the hardware refresh. If you melt your stuff, you've been warned! :-) Didn't work unfortunately. I got an error in the console log from the matroxfb driver that it could not set 720 so used 736 instead. The NVidia driver sometimes puts constraints on the modeline numbers to do hardware issues that made someone's silicon math easier. Not a multiple of 8 and things like that. That might be the sort of thing you're running into there. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 12:36:34 -0500, Thom Paine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: An I better or worse off using the tv-out on the pvr-350 or should I use the FX-5200. Depends on what you want to do with the frontend. If you want to play anything other than TV (that has not been transcoded) IMO the PVR-350 does not cut it. Alex ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-15-02 at 09:47 -0800, Alex Harford wrote: On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 12:36:34 -0500, Thom Paine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: An I better or worse off using the tv-out on the pvr-350 or should I use the FX-5200. Depends on what you want to do with the frontend. If you want to play anything other than TV (that has not been transcoded) IMO the PVR-350 does not cut it. I'd like to play DVD's, tv, recorded shows, that sort of thing. So I'd be better off with the 350 in the backend only, or used with a regular card with tv out? Thanks. -=/Thom ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 2/15/2005 12:52:52 PM On Tue, 2005-15-02 at 09:47 -0800, Alex Harford wrote: On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 12:36:34 -0500, Thom Paine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: An I better or worse off using the tv-out on the pvr-350 or should I use the FX-5200. Depends on what you want to do with the frontend. If you want to play anything other than TV (that has not been transcoded) IMO the PVR-350 does not cut it. I'd like to play DVD's, tv, recorded shows, that sort of thing. So I'd be better off with the 350 in the backend only, or used with a regular card with tv out? Thanks. -=/Thom You just wasted some cash. Yes, you'd be better off with something like a 5200 that can do all kinds of hardware decoding, not just the TV-related stuff. Paul ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
If you value quality over all else, then the PVR-350 (after sufficient tweaking of the GUI) is about the best that you can get for S-Video or Composite output. However, using the PVR-350 locks you only into viewing MPEG-2 recordings. You can get DVD playback working with xine or mplayer, but it will really cause a CPU hit, since it will be using a framebuffer. I don't know about MPEG-4 or RTJPEG recordings, because I have dual PVR-x50's (one 250, one 350). Also, you can forget about MythGame/xmame, and some of the visualizations in MythMusic. I use an FX5200 for my TV output. It works well for everything, but there are some trade-offs to be made. If I don't use any deinterlacing filters (but use the nvidia settings tool to turn on anti-aliasing), then fast scrolling messages aren't too smooth (but everything else is pretty good). Enabling Bob fixes this (in fact, with Bob, it's just about perfect), but then some shows (notably cartoons where there's lots of thin lines) are flickery. There are none of these issues with the PVR-350 output. -- Joe --- Thom Paine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I finally got my computer supplier to order me a PVR-350 card for my upcoming myth box. I also thought about getting a FX-5200 with TV-Out to hook to my television. An I better or worse off using the tv-out on the pvr-350 or should I use the FX-5200. Purchasing both cards right now is a bit of a moot point, as I plan to have a backend / front end system in the future. Thanks. -=/Thom ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
RE: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
I concur with John. Very smooth and good clarity. Hard tell the diff from normal tele. -r -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Kuhn Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 1:17 PM To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut I honestly have yet to see a TV-Out from a card compare to the 350.. i have tried the GF4mx's and also have a 5200.. everything seems blurry and the colors are washed out.. on the 350 everything looks like it should and it can keep up very well with tickers and fast motion vid.. --John I finally got my computer supplier to order me a PVR-350 card for my upcoming myth box. I also thought about getting a FX-5200 with TV-Out to hook to my television. An I better or worse off using the tv-out on the pvr-350 or should I use the FX-5200. Purchasing both cards right now is a bit of a moot point, as I plan to have a backend / front end system in the future. Thanks. -=/Thom --- - ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
RE: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 13:25 -0500, Ronald Kohsman wrote: I concur with John. Very smooth and good clarity. Hard tell the diff from normal tele. But that is done by sending the card MPEG2 right? The card decodes the mpeg2 and presumably sends it to the tele properly interlaced and vsync'd? Please tell me this is not done by rendering onto a window in the Xserver (running on the framebuffer). So if one's mythbox is transcoding recorded mpeg2 into nuv (mpeg4 isn't it?) how does that work with the 350's expected mpeg2 input? b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
RE: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
I haven't tried other than the PVR350 and I cannot tell the difference at all. But we only watch TV - Live or recorded. Paul K -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ronald Kohsman Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 1:25 PM To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut I concur with John. Very smooth and good clarity. Hard tell the diff from normal tele. -r -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Kuhn Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 1:17 PM To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut I honestly have yet to see a TV-Out from a card compare to the 350.. i have tried the GF4mx's and also have a 5200.. everything seems blurry and the colors are washed out.. on the 350 everything looks like it should and it can keep up very well with tickers and fast motion vid.. --John I finally got my computer supplier to order me a PVR-350 card for my upcoming myth box. I also thought about getting a FX-5200 with TV-Out to hook to my television. An I better or worse off using the tv-out on the pvr-350 or should I use the FX-5200. Purchasing both cards right now is a bit of a moot point, as I plan to have a backend / front end system in the future. Thanks. -=/Thom --- - ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 13:32:00 -0500, Brian J. Murrell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Please tell me this is not done by rendering onto a window in the Xserver (running on the framebuffer). So if one's mythbox is transcoding recorded mpeg2 into nuv (mpeg4 isn't it?) how does that work with the 350's expected mpeg2 input? Not very well, as it's using the framebuffer rather than the mpeg2 format. Alex ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 10:38 -0800, Alex Harford wrote: Not very well, as it's using the framebuffer rather than the mpeg2 format. Ahhh. So if the file is MEPG2, then it uses the MPEG2 decoder, but if it's anything other it uses it like any old other framebuffer card? The 350 can encode and decode simultaneously, no? :-) b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Now use your video card's TV-out, enable Xv (which is generally hardware accelerated) and set the resolution to 720x576 if you are in PAL land or 720x480 for NTSC and use the bob deinterlacer. Now you have the same fluid and smooth motion as TV with a sharp image. The trick is, that the bob deinterlacer spits out frames at the same rate that TV's do with fields (interlaced, half frames) while other deinterlacers do not. I understand that the 350 is terribly slow on other material thatn MPEG-2 since it uses a frambuffer. So much for XviD/etc watching. -- Jeroen Ronald Kohsman wrote: I concur with John. Very smooth and good clarity. Hard tell the diff from normal tele. -r -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of John Kuhn Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 1:17 PM To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut I honestly have yet to see a TV-Out from a card compare to the 350.. i have tried the GF4mx's and also have a 5200.. everything seems blurry and the colors are washed out.. on the 350 everything looks like it should and it can keep up very well with tickers and fast motion vid.. --John I finally got my computer supplier to order me a PVR-350 card for my upcoming myth box. I also thought about getting a FX-5200 with TV-Out to hook to my television. An I better or worse off using the tv-out on the pvr-350 or should I use the FX-5200. Purchasing both cards right now is a bit of a moot point, as I plan to have a backend / front end system in the future. Thanks. -=/Thom --- - ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 13:41:49 -0500, Brian J. Murrell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 10:38 -0800, Alex Harford wrote: Not very well, as it's using the framebuffer rather than the mpeg2 format. Ahhh. So if the file is MEPG2, then it uses the MPEG2 decoder, but if it's anything other it uses it like any old other framebuffer card? The 350 can encode and decode simultaneously, no? :-) Yes, but AFAIK you can't get at the encode side of the card unless it's coming in from the tuner/svideo/composite input. :) If the card could take raw data, I could use it to MPEG2 encode my DV files that I grab from my video camera. That would be cool! Alex ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 19:52 +0100, Jeroen Brosens wrote: Now use your video card's TV-out, enable Xv (which is generally hardware accelerated) and set the resolution to 720x576 if you are in PAL land or 720x480 for NTSC and use the bob deinterlacer. Now you have the same fluid and smooth motion as TV with a sharp image. The trick is, that the bob deinterlacer spits out frames at the same rate that TV's do with fields (interlaced, half frames) while other deinterlacers do not. See, that is totally wrong (or rather not as right as right could be) methodology. The real secret to picture perfect tv-out is to display to the TV _exactly_ as the original signal would have. Record the signal exactly as it comes and display it back exactly as you recorded it Don't post/pre-process it because of a crippled TV-Out method. So you record the signal field by field and then redisplay it clocked perfectly, field by field. That is the only way to do it. This is what DirectFB and the G400's TV-Out accomplishes. Unfortunately, Myth's use of QT makes this impossible because QT does not support DirectFB, or even SDL. SDL would be satisfactory because SDL supports drawing on a DirectFB surface. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Could this be a licensing issue? Meaning, the use of the encoder is licensed to Hauppauge. Just a thought, I am not even sure if MPEG2 needs a license. Just a thought. ~G On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 14:00 -0500, Brian J. Murrell wrote: On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 10:55 -0800, Alex Harford wrote: Yes, but AFAIK you can't get at the encode side of the card unless it's coming in from the tuner/svideo/composite input. :) Ahh. Right. Forgot about that detail. If the card could take raw data, I could use it to MPEG2 encode my DV files that I grab from my video camera. That would be cool! Indeed! I wonder if Hauppauge recognize the value of this possible feature. Generic hardware MPEG2 encoder. That would be uber-groovy! b. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tuesday 15 February 2005 02:05 pm, Brian J. Murrell wrote: See, that is totally wrong (or rather not as right as right could be) methodology. The real secret to picture perfect tv-out is to display to the TV _exactly_ as the original signal would have. Record the signal exactly as it comes and display it back exactly as you recorded it Don't post/pre-process it because of a crippled TV-Out method. So you record the signal field by field and then redisplay it clocked perfectly, field by field. That is the only way to do it. This is what DirectFB and the G400's TV-Out accomplishes. Unfortunately, Myth's use of QT makes this impossible because QT does not support DirectFB, or even SDL. SDL would be satisfactory because SDL supports drawing on a DirectFB surface. Guess I'll have to remove all those SDL visualization methods in mythmusic, and the DirectFB videoOutput class in mythtv, since they're obviously impossible. Isaac ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 12:36:34PM -0500, Thom Paine wrote: I finally got my computer supplier to order me a PVR-350 card for my upcoming myth box. I also thought about getting a FX-5200 with TV-Out to hook to my television. An I better or worse off using the tv-out on the pvr-350 or should I use the FX-5200. For SDTV-only playback of MythTV recordings (no non-MPEG-2 video, no DVD, etc.), the PVR-350's video output is far superior to the TV-out on a video card. I always ran into problems with the FX5200 not aligning the fields properly, so interlaced video (which is nearly all SD video) looked nasty. For any kind of HDTV display, of course, the PVR-350 output won't do you any good. Since the framebuffer on the PVR-350 is also fairly slow, playback of DVDs, MPEG-4 video, etc. works better on a normal video card as well. (Yes, I know that the video on DVDs is MPEG-2, but I don't know of any DVD player software that will take advantage of the PVR-350's MPEG decoder. It should be possible...way back in the day, I used a Dxr2 hardware MPEG decoder to play DVDs on a 200-MHz K6.) _/_ / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail) (IIGS( http://alfter.us/Top-posting! \_^_/ rm -rf /bin/ladenWhat's the most annoying thing on Usenet? pgpHuUTfYEAi8.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
See, that is totally wrong (or rather not as right as right could be) methodology. The real secret to picture perfect tv-out is to display to the TV _exactly_ as the original signal would have. Record the signal exactly as it comes and display it back exactly as you recorded it Don't post/pre-process it because of a crippled TV-Out method. So you record the signal field by field and then redisplay it clocked perfectly, field by field. That is the only way to do it. Isn't that what VSYNC is supposed to be for? What's the status on this, anyway? I haven't tried since I put an NVIDIA card (MX-440) in my machine. I'm running the VGA port at 480i speed, so syncing to the playing MPEG2 stream would be *perfect*. Right now I need to do deinterlacing or I get tearing. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 14:19 -0500, Isaac Richards wrote: On Tuesday 15 February 2005 02:05 pm, Brian J. Murrell wrote: See, that is totally wrong (or rather not as right as right could be) methodology. The real secret to picture perfect tv-out is to display to the TV _exactly_ as the original signal would have. Record the signal exactly as it comes and display it back exactly as you recorded it Don't post/pre-process it because of a crippled TV-Out method. So you record the signal field by field and then redisplay it clocked perfectly, field by field. That is the only way to do it. This is what DirectFB and the G400's TV-Out accomplishes. Unfortunately, Myth's use of QT makes this impossible because QT does not support DirectFB, or even SDL. SDL would be satisfactory because SDL supports drawing on a DirectFB surface. Guess I'll have to remove all those SDL visualization methods in mythmusic, and the DirectFB videoOutput class in mythtv, since they're obviously impossible. Go back and reread what I said. I did not say Myth's use of DirectFB was impossible (indeed it is great) nor did I say Myth's use of SDL was impossible. What I said is that QT did not support writing on either an SDL surface nor a DirectFB surface, which is the disappointing part because that makes getting the OSD on DirectFB impossible. I'm really not sure how displaying the OSD on an X-server on a G400 matroxset mangled framebuffer is supposed to work with the DirectFB layer 2 CRTC2 output anyhow since I thought the two were mutually exclusive (i.e. framebuffer/X11 needing the maven kernel module and DirectFB requiring no maven kernel module). I did try it and all I got was the video playing in a small square in the top right of the screen. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 14:35 -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: Isn't that what VSYNC is supposed to be for? Exactly. The G400 (probably others) is able to interrupt on the vsync pulse allowing the driver and software above it to know when the vsync has happened and thus when to load the next frame into video memory (frame flip). But AFAIK, X11 does not support vsyncing. There is no way for an X11 application to know when the vsync pulse has hit so it can't really know when to frame flip. Also the video hardware has to be able to encode to TV-Out in an interlaced overscanned mode. I have only seen the G400 able to do this properly with DirectFB's help. matroxset and X11 and the framebuffer don't do it properly. Right now I need to do deinterlacing or I get tearing. Yup. Exactly. b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
I understand the general consensus is pvr output video card with s-vid out, but what about a regular video card with a VGA-Composite converter. Would that rival the pvr output with the added bonus of playing any format thrown at it? ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tuesday 15 February 2005 02:44 pm, Brian J. Murrell wrote: On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 14:35 -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: Isn't that what VSYNC is supposed to be for? Exactly. The G400 (probably others) is able to interrupt on the vsync pulse allowing the driver and software above it to know when the vsync has happened and thus when to load the next frame into video memory (frame flip). But AFAIK, X11 does not support vsyncing. There is no way for an X11 application to know when the vsync pulse has hit so it can't really know when to frame flip. Also the video hardware has to be able to encode to TV-Out in an interlaced overscanned mode. I have only seen the G400 able to do this properly with DirectFB's help. matroxset and X11 and the framebuffer don't do it properly. Guess I'll have to remove the vsync code from the Xv/XvMC output at well. Isaac ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 14:40 -0500, Brian J. Murrell wrote: I'm really not sure how displaying the OSD on an X-server on a G400 matroxset mangled framebuffer is supposed to work with the DirectFB layer 2 CRTC2 output anyhow since I thought the two were mutually exclusive (i.e. framebuffer/X11 needing the maven kernel module and DirectFB requiring no maven kernel module). I think that one's a losing battle. DFB runs CRTC2 in YUV mode on G400 to reduce the amount of data transferred over the pci bus, and reduce the amount of computation. That doesn't do the OSD any favours. Cheers, Martin. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tuesday 15 February 2005 02:40 pm, Brian J. Murrell wrote: Go back and reread what I said. I did not say Myth's use of DirectFB was impossible (indeed it is great) nor did I say Myth's use of SDL was impossible. What I said is that QT did not support writing on either an SDL surface nor a DirectFB surface, which is the disappointing part because that makes getting the OSD on DirectFB impossible. Huh? Do you have any idea what you're talking about, or are you just making things up as you go? Qt has absolutely nothing to do with the OSD in mythtv. Isaac ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 14:44 -0500, Brian J. Murrell wrote: But AFAIK, X11 does not support vsyncing. There is no way for an X11 application to know when the vsync pulse has hit so it can't really know when to frame flip. It's possible with opengl etc, but I don't know the details, and it isn't supported on matrox. You can also hack mythtv to check the horizontal scan line count register (0x3c48) directly from the video output code, and get it to busy-wait until the start of frame. This can be made to work ok, but is never going to make it into the myth code for good reason. Also the video hardware has to be able to encode to TV-Out in an interlaced overscanned mode. I have only seen the G400 able to do this properly with DirectFB's help. matroxset and X11 and the framebuffer don't do it properly. No, this works under X too if you set it up right. You need to disable interlacing in mythtv, of course. Also use 16 bit RGB due to PCI bus bandwidth in 32 bit RGB. Cheers, Martin. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Could someone provide a run down of where are the settings are made. As I understand it, there are settings in the xorg.conf file (I have only gotten the fx5200 to do 800x600, 640x480, 320x240) and in the setup menu in Myth (setup-? for bob and 720x480). Are those the only two places to worry about? Dan On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 19:52:19 +0100, Jeroen Brosens [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Now use your video card's TV-out, enable Xv (which is generally hardware accelerated) and set the resolution to 720x576 if you are in PAL land or 720x480 for NTSC and use the bob deinterlacer. Now you have the same fluid and smooth motion as TV with a sharp image. The trick is, that the bob deinterlacer spits out frames at the same rate that TV's do with fields (interlaced, half frames) while other deinterlacers do not. I understand that the 350 is terribly slow on other material thatn MPEG-2 since it uses a frambuffer. So much for XviD/etc watching. -- Jeroen Ronald Kohsman wrote: I concur with John. Very smooth and good clarity. Hard tell the diff from normal tele. -r -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Kuhn Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 1:17 PM To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut I honestly have yet to see a TV-Out from a card compare to the 350.. i have tried the GF4mx's and also have a 5200.. everything seems blurry and the colors are washed out.. on the 350 everything looks like it should and it can keep up very well with tickers and fast motion vid.. --John I finally got my computer supplier to order me a PVR-350 card for my upcoming myth box. I also thought about getting a FX-5200 with TV-Out to hook to my television. An I better or worse off using the tv-out on the pvr-350 or should I use the FX-5200. Purchasing both cards right now is a bit of a moot point, as I plan to have a backend / front end system in the future. Thanks. -=/Thom --- - ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 15:00 -0500, Isaac Richards wrote: Huh? Do you have any idea what you're talking about, A little. I have been mucking with PVR software and TV-Out stuff for about 4 years now. I have been a long time user of Freevo on DirectFB so I know what properly formatted TV-Out looks like. It looks just like TV, not like X11 @ 800x600 on the TV. or are you just making things up as you go? I'm not trying to pick a fight here Isaac. You seem to have gotten offended somehow. Notice I said I was a long time user of Freevo. Now I am a user of MythTV. It is (IMHO) much better than Freevo, with the exception of G400 TV-Out support. I am trying to help with that effort, not hurt it. Qt has absolutely nothing to do with the OSD in mythtv. So, the whole GUI that you get when mythtv starts up is not written on the QT toolkit? What exactly is QT used for in mythtv then? b. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tuesday 15 February 2005 03:06 pm, Brian J. Murrell wrote: So, the whole GUI that you get when mythtv starts up is not written on the QT toolkit? What exactly is QT used for in mythtv then? Only the non-video portions of the UI are drawn by Qt. Since that's by definition not video playback, and isn't being displayed at video frame rates, it has absolutely no need to know anything about the vsync or anything else, really, aside from what resolution + dpi to display at. Please, get a clue before spouting off extremely inaccurate comments. Isaac ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
But AFAIK, X11 does not support vsyncing. There is no way for an X11 application to know when the vsync pulse has hit so it can't really know when to frame flip. Also the video hardware has to be able to encode to TV-Out in an interlaced overscanned mode. I have only seen the G400 able to do this properly with DirectFB's help. matroxset and X11 and the framebuffer don't do it properly. I don't know what you're trying to say about an interlaced overscanned mode. I don't know about TVout cards, but there are lots of cards that can output 480i on the VGA port. It's almost exactly 1/2 VGA (640x480) speed, so the quality is excellent... it just needs to be tv-encoded. That doesn't affect the VSYNC issue. Right now I need to do deinterlacing or I get tearing. Yup. Exactly. It's weird though... one would think that with a lack of vsync, there'd be a tearing vertical roll. There isn't in my setup... the tearpoint is always at the same location. Quite odd. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
You can also hack mythtv to check the horizontal scan line count register (0x3c48) directly from the video output code, and get it to busy-wait until the start of frame. This can be made to work ok, but is never going to make it into the myth code for good reason. It sounds interesting... a sort of software hack to phoney up VSYNC. IIRC VSYNC support is enabled in MythTV now, but I'm not sure which cards it supports or how to enable it. NVidia only? No, this works under X too if you set it up right. You need to disable interlacing in mythtv, of course. Also use 16 bit RGB due to PCI bus bandwidth in 32 bit RGB. Disable [de]interlacing you mean? -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tuesday 15 February 2005 03:50 pm, Cory Papenfuss wrote: It's weird though... one would think that with a lack of vsync, there'd be a tearing vertical roll. There isn't in my setup... the tearpoint is always at the same location. Quite odd. Are you running the video output on a 2nd head? XvPutImage should be syncing it automatically (so no tearing), but this doesn't work in a multi-headed situation. If using an nvidia card, there's also a setting in the nvidia-settings app to enable/disable this, but it's enabled by default. Isaac ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005, Gabe Rubin wrote: I understand the general consensus is pvr output video card with s-vid out, but what about a regular video card with a VGA-Composite converter. Would that rival the pvr output with the added bonus of playing any format thrown at it? Yes, provided the converter doesn't suck. I'm pretty sure that most of the low end ones are as bad (or worse) than the built-in vid card ones. Remember, those scanline converters go: [D-A from VGA]-A-D-scale-temporally interpolate-A Lots of places for it to suck. -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tuesday 15 February 2005 03:53 pm, Cory Papenfuss wrote: You can also hack mythtv to check the horizontal scan line count register (0x3c48) directly from the video output code, and get it to busy-wait until the start of frame. This can be made to work ok, but is never going to make it into the myth code for good reason. It sounds interesting... a sort of software hack to phoney up VSYNC. IIRC VSYNC support is enabled in MythTV now, but I'm not sure which cards it supports or how to enable it. NVidia only? Older nvidia drivers (native implementation), any driver + xserver that supports the GLX_SGI_video_sync OpenGL extension (newer nvidia drivers some ati I believe), and a DRM method (unichrome driver, maybe a couple others, some of the opensource ati drivers). Isaac ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
I orignally got a pvr-350. Now I realize I should have saved myself a few bucks and gone with the pvr-250. People use thier myth boxes in different ways. But I always felt the great thing about myth is you can do much more than watch TV. Myth does games, play video files, DVD, video conferencing. Any off-the-self DVR can do that. I'd go with an pvr-250 and an Nvidia card if I where you. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 2005-15-02 at 16:00 -0500, J [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I orignally got a pvr-350. Now I realize I should have saved myself a few bucks and gone with the pvr-250. People use thier myth boxes in different ways. But I always felt the great thing about myth is you can do much more than watch TV. Myth does games, play video files, DVD, video conferencing. Any off-the-self DVR can do that. I'd go with an pvr-250 and an Nvidia card if I where you. Someone told me, or I read somewhere, that with the 350 has dual tuners. But also, the price difference is $30 Canadian for me to get either card. The 250 is $199 at BestBuy and the 350 is $230 for me from my computer hardware supplier. I thought the 350 would be better, or at least the extra few bucks. Thanks. -=/Thom ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Any off-the-self DVR can do that. I didn't mean to say that all DVRs can play games and videos. I meant to say any DVR can watch record and play TV. Myth can do so much more, so why go with a pvr-350 tv-out? I really should prove read before I post ;) -Jå§òÑ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 03:56:14PM -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote: On Tue, 15 Feb 2005, Gabe Rubin wrote: I understand the general consensus is pvr output video card with s-vid out, but what about a regular video card with a VGA-Composite converter. Would that rival the pvr output with the added bonus of playing any format thrown at it? Yes, provided the converter doesn't suck. I'm pretty sure that most of the low end ones are as bad (or worse) than the built-in vid card ones. Remember, those scanline converters go: [D-A from VGA]-A-D-scale-temporally interpolate-A As an addendum, many newer TVs (particularly HD) tend to support DVI input - has anyone used this successfully, and more importantly, with good results? Sorry if this is a naive question, I'm still learning much of this. Regards, Tim -- Morals? I eat communism and $h!t America, brother. --Seanbaby ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
RE: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Just my opinion, but... No matter what else you can do with your PVR, if TV doesn't look like TV, it's no good to me. Again - Just my opinion. And yes, we don't all use them for the same things... Paul K ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
The PVR-350 has dual tuners, but one of them is for TV, and the other is for radio (I don't know if it's FM only, or AM also). -- Joe --- Thom Paine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, 2005-15-02 at 16:00 -0500, Jå§òÑ [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I orignally got a pvr-350. Now I realize I should have saved myself a few bucks and gone with the pvr-250. People use thier myth boxes in different ways. But I always felt the great thing about myth is you can do much more than watch TV. Myth does games, play video files, DVD, video conferencing. Any off-the-self DVR can do that. I'd go with an pvr-250 and an Nvidia card if I where you. Someone told me, or I read somewhere, that with the 350 has dual tuners. But also, the price difference is $30 Canadian for me to get either card. The 250 is $199 at BestBuy and the 350 is $230 for me from my computer hardware supplier. I thought the 350 would be better, or at least the extra few bucks. Thanks. -=/Thom ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005, Isaac Richards wrote: On Tuesday 15 February 2005 03:50 pm, Cory Papenfuss wrote: It's weird though... one would think that with a lack of vsync, there'd be a tearing vertical roll. There isn't in my setup... the tearpoint is always at the same location. Quite odd. Are you running the video output on a 2nd head? XvPutImage should be syncing it automatically (so no tearing), but this doesn't work in a multi-headed situation. If using an nvidia card, there's also a setting in the nvidia-settings app to enable/disable this, but it's enabled by default. No... it's always been on a singlehead. Now that I think about it, however, I'm not sure if I've tried it since I switched to an Nvidia card with proprietary driver. I used to use a r128 Gatos. I'll check for sure tonight and make sure it's still broken. It should Just Work if the SGI_vsync whatever extension is there, though, eh? -Cory * * Cory Papenfuss* * Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student * * Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University * * ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 16:21:21 -0500, Paul K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just my opinion, but... No matter what else you can do with your PVR, if TV doesn't look like TV, it's no good to me. Again - Just my opinion. And yes, we don't all use them for the same things... My Chaintech nForce2 based Geforce 4 produces output that looks like TV. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Someone told me, or I read somewhere, that with the 350 has dual tuners. Somone told you wrong. I believe there is a new card that has dual tuners, but the 350 is not such a beast. I personally use the pvr-350, and it does have pretty good output (on a crappy tv, so hard to get a good read on that). I do regret not having the ability to play divx or other formats, but I can play vcd and svcd from my windows box through the pvr with no problem. I specified the internal player instead of mplayer or xine to do this, and aside from not being able to skip around that well, it works fine output wise. When I do upgrade the box, or add another, I will likely get one with a different vid card (or better yet, just get a tv with vga or dvi inputs). -- Email me if you want a gmail account, I have invites. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tuesday 15 February 2005 04:26 pm, Cory Papenfuss wrote: On Tue, 15 Feb 2005, Isaac Richards wrote: On Tuesday 15 February 2005 03:50 pm, Cory Papenfuss wrote: It's weird though... one would think that with a lack of vsync, there'd be a tearing vertical roll. There isn't in my setup... the tearpoint is always at the same location. Quite odd. Are you running the video output on a 2nd head? XvPutImage should be syncing it automatically (so no tearing), but this doesn't work in a multi-headed situation. If using an nvidia card, there's also a setting in the nvidia-settings app to enable/disable this, but it's enabled by default. No... it's always been on a singlehead. Now that I think about it, however, I'm not sure if I've tried it since I switched to an Nvidia card with proprietary driver. I used to use a r128 Gatos. I'll check for sure tonight and make sure it's still broken. It should Just Work if the SGI_vsync whatever extension is there, though, eh? Well, with Xv and a nvidia card and singlehead, there shouldn't be any tearing whatsoever on video playback, unless you disable that through the nvidia-settings app. That's built in to the driver. Tearing, though is separate from the vsync support code in myth, which uses the vsync info it gets for more accurate delivery timing. You do have to enable the opengl sync method in settings.pro for that vsync method to work, though. Isaac ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 04:07:45PM -0500, Thom Paine wrote: Someone told me, or I read somewhere, that with the 350 has dual tuners. But also, the price difference is $30 Canadian for me to get either card. The 250 is $199 at BestBuy and the 350 is $230 for me from my computer hardware supplier. I thought the 350 would be better, or at least the extra few bucks. It is a shame how much Canadian stores rip you off, not enough competition. (Even for ATI products which are from a Canadian company.) The WinTV-PVR-150-MCE for example, if you don't want a remote control, is $65 USD at buy.com and $83 with the remote control. However the drivers for this are less mature, and probably more work for you. Soon, however, this will be the card of choice, I suspect -- though that USB device that also does MP4 that was being talked about here may also be popular. Nvidia GF4 cards with (I think) quite decent TV-out are $35. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Does the FX5200 cards have mpeg2 hardware decoders? nVidia's site isn't clear on this. I think that some of them might, but I think it's only on the mobile versions. Anybody got any info on this? --- Brad Templeton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 04:07:45PM -0500, Thom Paine wrote: Someone told me, or I read somewhere, that with the 350 has dual tuners. But also, the price difference is $30 Canadian for me to get either card. The 250 is $199 at BestBuy and the 350 is $230 for me from my computer hardware supplier. I thought the 350 would be better, or at least the extra few bucks. It is a shame how much Canadian stores rip you off, not enough competition. (Even for ATI products which are from a Canadian company.) The WinTV-PVR-150-MCE for example, if you don't want a remote control, is $65 USD at buy.com and $83 with the remote control. However the drivers for this are less mature, and probably more work for you. Soon, however, this will be the card of choice, I suspect -- though that USB device that also does MP4 that was being talked about here may also be popular. Nvidia GF4 cards with (I think) quite decent TV-out are $35. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users __ Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today! http://my.yahoo.com ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
Well, with Xv and a nvidia card and singlehead, there shouldn't be any tearing whatsoever on video playback, unless you disable that through the nvidia-settings app. That's built in to the driver. Tearing, though is separate from the vsync support code in myth, which uses the vsync info it gets for more accurate delivery timing. You do have to enable the opengl sync method in settings.pro for that vsync method to work, though. Isaac __ Is there or will there be a way for MythTV to have vsync support without OpenGL, DRM, etc.? Like myself there must be a great number of people that built their HTPC around a barebone which looks good in the living room. Most of the times, these don't have high-end ATi or nVidia video chips OR a video upgrade option. Also, TV-outs are not always capable of processinginterlaced material, which leaves the need for either a hardware workaround (VGA to RGB converter) or good software deinterlacing WITH vsync support. I am still trying to get a satisfactory, full frame rate and most important of all steady (!) image because the only available deinterlacer, bobdeint, goes jittering *a lot* without proper vsync. Sigh. As soon as my vga2rgb cable is working (read: lots of modeline tuning) I will finally be able to watch smooth TV on my Pundit! -- Jeroen ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tuesday 15 February 2005 06:15 pm, Jeroen Brosens wrote: Well, with Xv and a nvidia card and singlehead, there shouldn't be any tearing whatsoever on video playback, unless you disable that through the nvidia-settings app. That's built in to the driver. Tearing, though is separate from the vsync support code in myth, which uses the vsync info it gets for more accurate delivery timing. You do have to enable the opengl sync method in settings.pro for that vsync method to work, though. Isaac __ Is there or will there be a way for MythTV to have vsync support without OpenGL, DRM, etc.? Like myself there must be a great number of people that built their HTPC around a barebone which looks good in the living room. Most of the times, these don't have high-end ATi or nVidia video chips OR a video upgrade option. Also, TV-outs are not always capable of processinginterlaced material, which leaves the need for either a hardware workaround (VGA to RGB converter) or good software deinterlacing WITH vsync support. Talk to the driver people. Anything can be added, but not without some sort of driver support. Isaac ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] PVR-350 vs FX-5200 TVOut
On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 01:21:17PM -0800, Tim Fenn wrote: As an addendum, many newer TVs (particularly HD) tend to support DVI input - has anyone used this successfully, and more importantly, with good results? It works great on the 30 widescreen LCD I'm using...all it took was a modeline to generate 1280x768 (native resolution). _/_ / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail) (IIGS( http://alfter.us/Top-posting! \_^_/ rm -rf /bin/ladenWhat's the most annoying thing on Usenet? pgpsrcNttkapB.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users