[mythtv-users] Have PVR350 Output working - final few questions...

Nick knowledgejunkie at gmail.com
Mon May 9 17:47:00 UTC 2005


On 5/9/05, John <MythTV at telus.net> wrote:
> The Live TV quality is incredible, but there are a few things to tweak.

The 350 LiveTV quality is indistinguishable from my input source!

> 
> The picture looks like it is a bit too large for the screen
> (overscanned) to the point where I cannot see the checkboxes on the
> setup screens. Do I try to underscan it the same way as with NVidia
> drivers, or how do I do this?

You cannot alter the overscan of the actual video output ( - yet, this
may change in newer driver releases). However you can alter the
positioning (X,Y, scaling) of the on-screen display to make that fit
in the viewable portion of the screen.
 
> I've read that to get the live TV audio to work the same as other parts
> of Myth (Myth Video and Recorded shows), you should loop the PVR350
> audio output into the Line in on the sound card. Where do you get the
> 350's audio out? I see an audio input on the 350. Or do you take the
> stereo connectors and combine into a mini-stereo plug?

The 350 card comes with the output splitter cable, giving 2 female
phono audio outs, 1 s-video and 1 composite video out. You can use a
Y-cable (2xmale phono to 1xmale 3.5mm audio plug) to route the audio
back into your line-in on your soundcard. The Line-in on the actual
backplace of the card is for *capturing* the audio in the first place
when using the s-video/composite input.

This setup works for all apps using the 350's output - live and
recorded TV, and xine playback if using the 350 as an output. Just
ensure you are using the correct mixer settings to allow the live tv
buffer audio to be heard, and not the 'live' input audio as it comes
into the 350's encoder.

> And I just noticed the quality of recorded shows isn't very good. Looks
> splotchy and overcompressed. It did not look that way when I was using
> the Monitor output. Is there something left to tweak with the frame
> buffer? I guess with the live TV looking so good, the recorded programs
> are a bit of a letdown.

Maybe your recording profile is using too low a bitrate for recording
on the 350 (a setting of 6000/8000 will give great results using
DVD-Special-2 profile). Also ensure that you are using the 350 output
(in frontend setup) and not using software decoding.

Nick


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