[mythtv-users] Re: PVR-250 worth the upgrade?

[Jarod C. Wilson]

On Friday, Oct 3, 2003, at 11:29 US/Pacific, Ben Curtis wrote:

>> I have an MSI FX5200 which doesn't have a fan (runs fairly hot 
>> though).
>> The card works well, has a DVI out (for future compatibility with a
>> plasma...), but do be aware that it seems to be too new to be 
>> supported
>> on older nvidia drivers.  For example booting Knoppix usually brings 
>> up
>> a black screen.  Also, Win XP (if you use that for any testing),
>> wouldn't do anything except call it a standard vga card.
>
> I don't need DVI, in fact would prefer S-Video.  I have a Radeon on a 
> HTPC
> in the movie room that runs the projector for DVI.  This is going in 
> the
> living room, so really I just need the S-vid.  As for no fan, that 
> sounds
> like a big plus for noise.

Most that have DVI also have S-Video out, in my experience. Oh, and 
many PNY cards (for the guy that mentioned he had one) are actually MSI 
cards stamped "PNY". Look at an lspci -v output. At least this is the 
case for my GF4Ti 4400 and 4600...

> This driver issue bothers me though.  I plan on running RedHat with 
> KDE,
> do you think I will have any problems with it's hardware MPEG2?

It isn't a hardware mpeg2 decoder, exactly. There's hardware-based 
decoding assistance, but not an outright mpeg2 decoder chip. Or 
something like that.

 From what I've heard, the FX cards work fine with v1.0-4363 of nVidia's 
drivers. Newer versions break overscan, and 4363 is rock-solid, so I've 
used nothing but that (its the version Axel uses in his nvidia driver 
rpms).

Personally, I use a GF4MX from Chaintech, which is also fanless (and 
that's a big reason I got it). You won't see much difference between an 
FX and an MX when it comes to MythTV. The FX would be better for games 
(or other 3D stuff) and you'd have the DVI for possible future use, but 
I think those are the only real benefits. As far as drawbacks, I think 
the FX runs hotter than the MX. If they're really the same price, get 
the FX, I guess, but I've not seen an FX as low as $40, which is about 
what I paid for my MX.

--Jarod

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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