[mythtv] WinTV PVR-250 (hardware mpeg encoder)

[Bruce Markey]

Matthew S. Hallacy wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 09, 2003 at 11:44:28AM -0500, Isaac Richards wrote:
...
>>And you can buy a cpu that will produce better quality video with higher 
>>compression for $50.  I'm not really interested in the cards. =)
> 
> Using what tuner hardware? The bt8x8 chips don't provide sufficient quality.

Define quality. I've played the "Video Essentials" DVD from
a DVD player into the S-video input of bttv card, recorded
at 720x480 and compressed it to mpeg4 without pegging a Duron
1.2GHz CPU ($31 at pricewatch today). My conclusion was that
the bt chip clocks latch at the right time and correctly assign
digital values for the analog signal that it is sampling and
sends the raw video data down the bus. There doesn't appear
to be much room for improvement in the quality of capture.

Most quality problems have to do with presentation and the
quality of the input signal. The capture card task of sampling
is really pretty simple. However, there was a card discussed
on this list that apparently has a shielding problem which
adds interference.

It's easy to assume that the 250 must be better because it's
newer or more expensive or is in a bigger box but is there any
quantitative proof that it more accurately samples the input
signal?

--  bjm