[mythtv] s-video input / widescreen tv ?

[Erik Arendse]

At 20-1-03 12:31, Laurent Farcy wrote:
>>If you can detect the flag correctly you can even flatten the display of 
>>the XV window on the computerscreen.
>>Not sure I understand what you mean. But since, I haven't yet built and 
>>played with MythTV, let's move forward .

MythTV shows some screens with an menu plus integrated videoscreen 
(http://mythtv.sourceforge.net/mc/playbackgrab.png). If you see them in 4:3 
(on monitor or normal TV), but the program is anamorphic, then the menu 
itself will be normal but the people in the picture will be long and thin.
If you put your TV in 16:9 anamorphic (or just turn down the V-scale of 
your monitor until you have the same deformation) and go to the menu, the 
menu will be deformed (not much of a problem as long as you can read it), 
anamorphic pictures will be normal, but any normal shows will have short 
fat people.

If mythTV knows which format a recording has and could control your TV, it 
can turn the TV in 4:3 for all menus, and show normal pictures as 4:3, 
while showing pictures from anamorphic sources squashed into 16:9.

>So there are some limitations in quality due to the source itself. But, 
>for a same video source, are there some differences in terms of visual 
>quality between one tv tuner card and another ? Maybe some cards have 
>better decoding chips ?
Yes they do, and on the risk of being flamed: the difference on the output 
is bigger than on the input.
This does not have any technological reason, it's just the way the market 
and the producers work at the moment.
Meaning get your output right before spending money on the input. (As long 
as you watch on your monitor it is not an issue of course).

Erik