[mythtv-users] Suggestions for HDTV video cards...

[Jarod C. Wilson]

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On Friday 13 February 2004 13:43, audin at okb-1.org wrote:
> 	So I'm finally setting up a machine to serve as a pcHDTV host and
> mythtv frontend.  It is going to have a P4 2.8ghz.  (Built on a Dell 400SC
> server...which is currently available for $441 delivered with 128M and
> 40Gigs).
>
> 	So the question is, what sort of video card to put in it?  My current
> test machine (a dual athlon MP 1800mhz) can almost decode 1080i to its
> Radeon 7000 card with XV.  However, that card cannot handle a 1920x1080
> overlay, so the right 1/3 of the image does not show.  I expect the
> P4-2.8Ghz to be able to pretty easily decode 1080i using XV.  But, of
> course, that means I need a card that can handle the full resolution.

I had similar decoding problems with a Radeon 9000 Pro. It isn't the card 
though, its the drivers.


> 	I am hoping to avoid nvidia cards as I have a string dislike of
> binary-only drivers

I have a strong liking for them. They just work. Except for the fact they 
won't output interlaced mode lines... I'm getting a SiS Xabre to see if it'll 
do full 1920x1080i for me. (I currently drive an HDTV w/a GF4MX using a 540p 
mode).


> and have heard bad things about the quality of XvMC video.

So don't use XvMC.


> 	A further complication is that this box will be feeding an XGA
> projector (through VGA), so I need to scale the video to fit.  (The
> projector will actually take a 1080i signal, but the resulting picture
> quality is really, really bad.)  One possible option here is to throw away
> every other field (as someone mentioned having a patch for a while back)
> and then let XV scale the width down by half.

Ah, so you're likely not feeding the projector an interlaced signal. Get an 
nVidia card. Use the binary driver. Be happy.


> 	So is anyone here successfully feeding HDTV to a radeon card?  A friend
> has pointed out Radeon 9100 cards for $49...

Speaking strictly about HD playback, the open-source radeon driver is 
mediocre, the proprietary fglrx driver was even worse, and I never got around 
to the gatos driver. Then I a brown-out toasted my Radeon 9000 Pro. I 
replaced it with another nVidia card.


> 	So what are those of you here with HDTV using for video cards?

Onboard GeForce 4 MX on a Chaintech nForce2 motherboard.

http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/mythhd.php

- -- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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