[mythtv-users] HDTV - PVR: Does it work?

[Brandon Beattie]

Almost everything works.  Things that still are being worked on are
transcoding (which is an mpeg->mpeg issue that effects more than just
HD) and full support for HD subchannels (This is due to not being able
to get HDTV program guide information - Most use ntsc program guide data
which works for almost everything, and not multiple subchannels).  

Everything you asked, the answer is yes.  It goes much further than any
other PVR or HDTV I have ever seen.  I have recorded 2 shows at once and
watched another in Live-tv (using 3 pcHDTV cards).  I have done PIP
(Picture in picture) with HDTV (Can't get enough college football in
HD).  Recording 4 shows at once has been tested with the pchdtv cards
(It takes about 2% CPU for each stream to handle writing to disk.  I
have a raid0 setup but the 4 recordings was done on a single drive.  I
recommend going to raid0 if you get more than 2 cards).  

The only thing I stop on is your CPU.  Mine is an amd 2600+.  It barely
handles 1080i without stuttering (I have de-interlacing on which takes
up a lot of CPU).  XvMC isn't a sure way of reducing CPU load and the
quality suffers too.  I recommend a P4 2.6 with Hyper Threading for
those who don't want to toy with the border of performance.  If you have
the money, go for a 3.0 or 3.2Ghz p4.  (No, amd 64 doesn't help either).
P4's simply outperform AMD by 20-30% for mpeg2/mpeg4 codecs.  I thought
2.6ghz on an amd would be enough, but until Myth is more optimized don't
risk the border.  I have since gotten a p4 3.0 Ghz w/HT and it is very
happy.  If you don't go for 3d games, and don't want to deal with XvMC
for my reasons, any video card will do.  I got the cheapest one with
DVI, that also supported XvMC but I'm very displeased with the quality
of it (Upscaling looks aweful with XvMC.  Software decoding will always
look better if you have the CPU to power it).

OSS is nice, especially when the person who made the card made it for
people like us who want to do what we want, not what others want us to
do.

--Brandon

On Tue, Jan 20, 2004 at 10:39:33AM -0800, Ian Neubert wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> I am planning on getting a pcHDTV capture card and just wanted to see what
> the status of support was for it under MythTV. Can it do real PVR functions
> like pause live HDTV, rewind live HDTV, and record an HDTV broadcast while
> watching another pre-recorded HDTV stream?
> 
> Thanks for your help.
> 
> Some background: I just bought a MyHD HDTV capture card and found out that I
> didn't read the fine print. It can't do any PVR functions, I basically just
> spent $400 on a VCR. Then I found out the manufacturer has no interest in
> supporting 3rd party programs.
> 
> So I say, screw the proprietary vendors and go open source. Yay!
> 
> I have the following system specs:
> 
> Athlon XP - 2400+ (2 GHz)
> Nvidia GF3 Ti 200
> 512 Mb ddr400 RAM
> Abit NF7 Mobo
> 
> ..................
> ..................
> ............ian...
> ..................
> www.ianneubert.com
> 
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