[mythtv-users] PVR 350, TV tuning and DVD decoding

[Jarod C. Wilson]

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On Thursday 05 February 2004 16:14, Franco wrote:
> I see that the PVR 350 is mentioned a lot and, if I understood
> correctly, it is the only hardware MPEG encoder/decoder working
> under Linux (which also provides a supported ir remote control).
> Before ordering one, can you confirm this?

Yes, it is the only device I know of that does all of the above.

> Or are there alternatives which should be considered?

Not really. Unless you absolutely must be able to watch divx movies right now. 
The driver is still under heavy development, so not everything works, and not 
everything is entirely stable yet. If those are problems, you might consider 
a different combination of capture card and output device.

> There are however a few things unclear to me:
>
> - does the "125 channel cable ready TV tuner" work only in the USA,
>   and with cable TV? Would it become just a useless piece of hardware,
>   once in Europe (analog/digital TV coming from antenna) ?

If you get the NTSC version, yep. But there's a PAL version for Europe too.

> - is the hardware MPEG decoder of the PVR 350 dedicated to a specific
>   function (is the USA cable TV coded in MPEG format ???) ?

The encoder part of the card encodes the cable TV stuff (or broadcast stuff) 
to mpeg2, it doesn't come down the pipe from the cable company in mpeg2 
format. (Its another story with ATSC/HDTV, but that's not relevant here).

>   Or is it a general-purpouse device that mythtv can use for other
>   things, like watching a DVD or a .mpg file ?

General-purpose.

> Also, I only found the term "stereo" on hauppauge web site.
> When decoding a DVD, will I get the full 5.1/6.1/7.1 information
> sent to the digital output of my soundcard?

If you specify the sound card as your audio output device, yes.

HTH...

- -- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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