[mythtv-users] RE: does the PVR-350 have issues?

[MythMichale]

As probably one of the ones that have been screaming the loudest about
the 350 "issues" please allow me to clarify.

When I say there were "issues" with the 350, I meant that in the
broadest sense possible.  IE configuration, software, my own stupidity,
any number of possible causes.  I, in NO way, meant to imply that there
was something basically wrong with the 350 or the ivtv driver.  

As it turned out, many many people seemed to have problems along the
same lines that I did.  Hence, the very public announcement that a "fix"
had been discovered. I would also think it unlikely that anyone w/o a
real solid understanding in the inner workings of the ivtv driver could
have stumbled onto this "fix".

As Anduin indicated, it's not quite known WHY this particular "fix" is
necessary.  But, it DOES work, for the ones who had the same symptoms I
had. He has indicated that he will look into it, once we get past the
holiday doings.  (I can sympathize on that.  I am supposed to be down
stairs doing xmas stuff with the family.  I am passing off my workings
on MythTV as getting the family's XMAS present ready.  :^)    )

In any case, let me say again.  My posts were not meant in any way to
imply that I felt something was wrong with the hardware or the software.
And my apologies if I gave that impression..  The pVR 350 is a great
card and I am very excited about unlocking it's potential..

Happy Mything...


					Michale



On Thu, 2003-12-25 at 11:02, Jay Goldberg wrote:
> Tim - DZ writes:
>  >
>  > The only real different is that the 350 has an output.  This means the card
>  > is doing decoding in the hardware (and your CPU isn't).  Generally speaking
>  > this should yield a smooth picture and a low CPU usage computer.
>  >
>  > The biggest problems I've seen are that the FM Tuner you're paying for with
>  > the 350 is not supported under linux at all, and getting X (and therefore
>  > mythfrontend) to display on the 350 output, for example I've got all the
>  > menus working fine on the monitor and TV / Playback working on the 350 TV
>  > output, but can't get the menus to work on the 350 output.
> 
> Hi all
> 
> This has been a fairly disconcerting thread for me to read; it seems
> that some folks have been representing troubles they've been having
> as "issues" with the PVR-350.  I own a PVR-350, and I bought it some
> months ago knowing full well that the folks working on the drivers
> (http://ivtv.sourceforge.net) still have some way to go.
> 
> That said, the drivers are quite good and getting better all the time.
> You can indeed get X to display on the TV-Out of the PVR-350.  And you
> can of course then get MythTV to run on this X display.  I have done
> this with great success.
> 
> For X, it's a braindead frame-buffer only, so don't expect OpenGL
> applications to do well (say goodbye to the nice OpenGL visualizations
> in MythMusic).  However, the TV-Out of the PVR-350 excels at playing
> MPEG2 streams because of the hardware decoder.  The video quality for
> watching recorded and live TV is stunning on the TV-Out of this card!
> 
> What can't you do yet?  You can't play a DVD without a patch to mplayer
> which is discussed here:
> 
>    http://www.poptix.net/ivtv/Dec-2003/msg00421.html
> 
> You can't really play a DIVX or MPEG4 file through the TV-Out unless
> you transcode it to MPEG2 on the way, since the hardware decoder doesn't
> support this.
> 
> You can't play FM radio yet, because the developers prioritize their work,
> and the video functionality is clearly more important at the moment.
> That's not to say that this won't be done some day.
> 
> While I'm waiting until I can play all video formats on the TV-Out of
> my PVR-350 (soon!), I do have to keep my setup working in a way that my
> wife can operate it with the remote.  So I have a $55 nVidia video card
> that's currently my only X display, and does a capable job of everything
> MythTV has to offer (although the video playback quality is mediocre
> compared to the TV-Out of the PVR-350).
> 
> I don't regret buying the 350, and I do recommend it highly.  It takes
> a little reading and attention to get everything working, and my vote
> is that it's worth your effort.  For anyone having troubles with this
> card, I recommend the searchable ivtv mailing list archive at
> http://www.poptix.net/ivtv
> 
>          Cheers
>                  Jay
> 
> 
> 
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