[mythtv-users] A few newbie type questions

Nick Gilbert nick at nickgilbert.com
Wed Jan 14 09:50:31 EST 2004


Hi all,

I'm considering setting up a MythTV box to play with, but as I'm not 
very linux proficient and I don't have a spare box yet, it'll probably 
take me a while. Before I waste my time and set up a system to realise 
that it's not really for me, I'd like to know the answer to a few questions:

1. I'm in the UK and I have a cable feed from NTL. Therefore my 
programmes are usually transmitted in 16:9 widescreen and my TV is also 
16:9 widescreen (PAL). HOWEVER, all the screen shots I've seen are all 
in 4:3 format and probably NTSC. Does mythtv support PAL and 16:9 
anamorphic transmissions properly? I can't really see how it can as I'm 
pretty sure that there aren't any video cards that could output a proper 
16:9 format PAL signal.

2. I really care about the quality of the recordings I get. How does the 
quality compare to say, the original digital feed? Presumably it'll only 
be a bit worse than the original feed?

3. UK TVs are 576 lines (I think). But most applications like this only 
work in 640x480. Does this mean that all cards with TV out, will have to 
scale/resample the 640x480 signal up to 576 lines for display on the TV 
and therefore may appear to be slightly soft all the time? Or can it put 
the graphics card into 720x576 to get UK PAL resolution?

4. Does it work like a TIVO in the sense that you are always watching a 
recompressed version of the signal rather than the original? Or does it 
show you the raw output of the TV card if you're not currently watching 
a recording?

Thanks,

Nick...

PS: I really wish MythTV.org had a searchable forums system instead of a 
mailing list. Mailing lists are very unstructured and a but clumsy to 
subscribe to and unsubscribe from when you only want to ask one or two 
questions. I think a lovely PHPBB would work much better for people like me.



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