[mythtv-users] A few newbie type questions

[Nick Gilbert]

> MythTv supports PAL settings, 16:9 PAL is 720x576 like a 4:3 signal,
> your TV stretches it to be 16:9, but there aren't more pixels in it,
> it's simply the geometry of the pixel that changes. So if all you
> transmissions are 16:9 you can just feed the signal to your TV and let
> the TV handle the anamorphic stretching. 

I think you're right, but the important thing is the signalling. If 
mythTV doesn't properly recognise the signal when it's recording, or 
output it when it's playing back, then it might output a widescreen 
broadcast without the signal. That would mean lots of manual switching 
or squashed pictures.

> The former is true. It writes the compressed stream to disk and plays it
> back from there to give you the possibility to pause and rewind the live
> tv stream. 

Hmm... I'd actually rather it didn't do that. On TIVOs it seems to 
degrade the picture quality, and causes a delay when changing channel 
(or doing anything) if you're using an external tuner. I'd want it to 
work more like a normal video, except with more intelligence when it 
comes to recording, and to have no tapes :)

Thanks for your replies

Nick...