[mythtv-users] better tv-out cards

[Ray Olszewski]

Edward -- I can't tell if you were addressing me or Jeffrey when you wrote 
"since you have take a pretty strong tone on this", since Jeffrey and I 
both seem to be writing somewhat forcefully on this topic (and you quote 
both of us). It was probably Jeffrey, considering teh context, but just in 
case it was me ... I can't refer you to any docs because I don't know of 
any. My main concern continues to be the poor state of detailed information 
regarding TV out on all the cards -- Matrox, ATI, Savage, and even nVidia.

To that end .. you say "I have spent too much time getting the tv out 
working and it is a real compromise at best" with respect to an ATI Radeon. 
Could you post the details of what you did and what limitations you see? We 
really need a HowTo doc on this, something much more specific than the 
vague hints at GATOS.

At 08:17 PM 5/8/2003 +0100, Edward Wildgoose wrote:
>I was really interested in getting one of the new parhelia cards for the 
>good quality TV output which is alleged, but the Matrox message forum 
>seemed to be full of people using very strong language about the state of 
>the linux driver.
>
>My ATI Radeon I bought because that the best quality output at the time 
>with a fast graphics core, but I have spent too much time getting the tv 
>out working and it is a real compromise at best.
>
>I currently have a geforce 2 which has adequate tv out.  But I would be 
>interested in getting a 5200 if someone could NAME A MAKE AND MODEL which 
>have decent tv out (and no fan...).  Everyone seems to be bleating that 
>they have a 5200, but then not pointing out which card it is, or which tv chip.
>
>I have done a reasonable amount of research on the tv output, but since 
>you have take a pretty strong tone on this, could you at least point to 
>some docs on how to get the parhelia working with tv out?  I would be 
>quite interested in buying one if the quality was good.  Ideally I would 
>like a card with RGB output, but these seem few and far between and even 
>then only workable with the windows driver - bummer.
>
>Thanks
>
>P.S. 3D works very well under X with ATI and many of the newer 
>cards.  NVidia is not the only 3D option (although the support is probably 
>better)
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ray Olszewski [mailto:ray at comarre.com]
>Sent: 08 May 2003 16:49
>To: Discussion about mythtv
>Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] better tv-out cards
>
>
>At 09:23 AM 5/8/2003 -0600, Jeffrey Brent McBeth wrote:
>[...]
> >For 3D, you are correct, NVidia is the only game in town.  For 2D, you are
> >full of ****.  As far as clean output goes, you cannot beat Matrox.  They
> >have been known for this for years, and their newest hardware doesn't change
> >that.  Their TV out works just fine with overscan etc.  They are much more
> >willing than NVIDIA or ATI to release their specs, and have been supported
> >for much longer and with a more complete function set than anybody else.
> >You just don't need 3D for mythtv, and that is all nvidia has going for it.
>
>Do you then know of a procedure for running TV out on a Matrox card and
>simultaneously supporting xVideo? The docs at
>http://www.bglug.ca/matrox_tvout/g450_tvout_howto.html seem to say that you
>cannot get xVideo to run with TV out on the G450 and G550 ... and these are
>the only Matrox cards I am aware of that support TV out with X.
>
>If you do know how to do this, could you post either the details or a
>reference (URL) to the details?