[mythtv-users] Abilities of the VIA motherboards

[bpierce815 at charter.net]

>I'm recording in 720x480 at 4400/6000 on the pvr250 and
>playback seems to stutter somewhat, especially just after
>starting a playback or just after entering live tv (until
>I pause the stream for a few seconds).  What resolution/
>bitrate are you using?  

I also saw this at 720x480.  I fixed it by changing the 
resolution to 640x480.  I did not see any difference in 
the quality of the picture, but the stuttering stopped.

>Also, the tv quality of the picture appears to be softer
>or almost out of focus or blurry compared to watching TV
>directly.  Is anyone else seeing this?  My Myth box is
>connected to the TV via a 6 meter composite cable and I'm
>wondering if this quality issue is due to the length or
>cable type.

I am using SVideo out to my television. 800x600 X 
resolution and 32bit color.  My picture is very crisp.

>I'll try moving the box closer to the TV and using a 
>shorter
>cable and also an svideo cable instead to compare 
>results.

My svideo cable is only 4' long. Though I don't know at 
what point the signal starts to degrade.

>As for Mpeg4/divx, the board did really well on a few
>episodes of Threat Matrix that I'd gotten from other
>sources.  They were in xvid format 640x352 940000 bitrate
>and used about 10-20% cpu playing back.  The quality was
>very good by my standards (tv like) but I don't recall if
>I was seeing the same softness as I do with the pvr250
>recordings.

Great to hear that Divx Playback is just as nice.

-Ben