[mythtv-users] 350 Tv Out vs. Nvidia 5200

[Erik Pettersen]

Forgive the slight threadjack, but... 

Does the PVR350 suffer the same EOF lockups in mythtv/linux that
happen in the windows world?

To the original poster:
In my opinion; the pvr350 and it's hardware decoder/svideo output
looks better than most software decoding / video card's svideo out (
out of the box/stock )

That's not to say a name brand fx5200 or higher will look bad, just
that you have to give the  nod to pvr350. I believe with tweaking,
proper settings, and a good software decoder you can get very
close/equal to PVR350's output.

>From the windows side of things, instability when using the PVR350
while forcing a gui "overlay" through the mpeg decoder/tv out drove me
to madness after some initial success/happiness.

I'm of the opinion (unless ivtv and this xv patch mentioned
previously, which has piqued my interest)  that what little the FX5200
or the like lacks in PQ via svideo out makes up for in flexibility and
stability.  Anything you can see on your monitor you can see on your
TV (mame, other applications, etc) with a regular video card, without
question.  Plus you've got the option of DVI/HDTV.

Of course, if you already have a pvr350 I'd consider trying to get it
to work, but if you were considering buying one or the other at the
start of a project IMHO video card + hw encoding tuner card is the
safer/easier route.

e.
--
http://www.byopvr.com
On 8/23/05, Brian Stults <bstults at crim.ufl.edu> wrote:
> Mark Gardner wrote:
> > Can anyone comment on the quality comparison between the two
> > abovementioned chipsets?
> >
> > Advantages / Disadvantages, I have a 350 and have struggled on and off
> > now for about 5 months to get it to work (Got it to work once but then
> > the HD died).
> > Mostly interested in quality of TV playback.
> >
> 
> Initially I was using the 350 TV-out.  However, it wasn't playing DVDs
> very well, so I switched to an MX440 about a year ago.  I used that for
> about 8 months and was reasonably happy, but the TV quality was nowhere
> near that of the 350.
> 
> Having read that people were quite pleased with the FX5200, I bought one
> about 4 months ago.  It was a step up from the MX440 in TV quality, and
> DVDs still played very well.
> 
> About a month after that, John Harvey released his XV driver for the
> 350's decoder, so I decided to give it a try.  Well, now I'm right back
> where I started - using the 350's TV-out.  TV playback is still far
> superior to the MX440 and FX5200.  It's flawless.  Perhaps even better
> quality than going straight from my cable box.  Now, DVD playing is much
> better than it used to be, and I would say it is equal to the quality I
> was getting with my FX5200.  I can't remember for sure what my CPU usage
> is when watching DVDs, but I think it was lower than with the FX5200.
> Of course, just watching TV on it takes virtually no CPU.  Using the
> latest 0.3.x drivers, I haven't had any stability problems.
> 
> The PVR350 TV-out has come a long way in the past few months, so I
> encourage anyone who gave up on it to give it another try.
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