[mythtv-users] WinTV-PVR-350 hardware decoder only works for TV out?

[Nick Rosier]

On 17/10/05, Andy Leung <angelflow at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I found this on the Hauppauge site
> (http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr350.html
> ):
>
> "WinTV-PVR-350 contains a highly integrated MPEG-1/2
> hardware encoder and hardware MPEG-1/2 decoder.
> WinTV-PVR-350 uses the hardware MPEG encoder for
> watching live TV, for pausing live TV and for
> recording. The encoded MPEG-2 video is sent over the
> PCI bus, where it is stored on the PCs hard disk (for
> pause and record) and simultaneously decoded in
> software for display on the PC screen (in all modes).
> When playing recorded video onto an external TV
> monitor, the on-board hardware MPEG-2 video decoder is
> used."
>
> Sounds like the hardware decoder only kicks in when
> you're using a TV set for display. Is that really the
> case when using MythTV and PVR-350? I only plan on
> watching tv on a computer monitor. In that case does
> PVR-350 offer any advantages over a cheaper model such
> as PVR-250?

Nope. AFAIK there's no way to use the decoder other than playing
through the tv-out.

N.