[mythtv-users] newbie hardware question

steve at nexusuk.org steve at nexusuk.org
Fri Feb 13 18:04:49 EST 2004


On Fri, 13 Feb 2004, Brian Varney wrote:

> My big question right now is which tv tuner card to get.  I've seen a lot
> of references to the PVR-350.  Is this the latest and greatest?  Is a new
> and improved card coming out soon?  Should I wait?

Assuming you're using an analogue input signal, you can either use a cheap 
BTTV card and a big CPU, or use a card with an onboard MPEG2 encoder such 
as the PVR cards (this will give better quality and less CPU usage).  2 of 
the supported MPEG2 encoder cards are the PVR250 and the PVR350 - they are 
pretty much identical except the 350 has an MPEG2 decoder and TV output 
onboard too, so you don't need to use any other VGA card.

However, there are some issues you should be aware of when using the 350 
for output - the drivers are flakey, so your milage may vary (some people 
swear by the 350, others swear at it :).  Of course, you can always buy a 
350 and only use it as a tuner until the drivers get stable.  The other 
thing is that the drivers don't currently support YUV output, so you can 
only play MPEG2 videos.

> The PVR-350 has two coax inputs.  Does that means it is possible to record
> 2 shows at once?  Can you record one show while watching another?  Or does
> this require two cards?

One of the sockets is the output - there is only a single encoder on the 
card.  You can watch while it's recording, through either the 350 output 
or the machine's VGA output (or indeed on a networked frontend).

(Although note that I don't actually have a PVR card, this is just what I 
know from other people who have them)

-- 

 - Steve                                             http://www.nexusuk.org/

     Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum - Whisper, Evanescence



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