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

[Simpson, Richard]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org]On Behalf Of Andy Leung
> 
> That's strange. In another part of the hauppauge site
> (http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr350.html)
> -
> 
> "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."
> 
> Which implies that the MPEG decoder is only used for
> TV-out, while VGA out uses software decoding. That's a
> contradiction to the passage you quoted. I wonder
> which version is correct.

Now that I think about it, the 350 does not have a VGA output, which means the video stream has to go through the normal video card to get to the monitor. So no hardware decoding for VGA. They must have let the marketing guys write the data sheet instead of their engineers.

Is this an exiting setup you have, or a planned one? Do you only intend to display video on the monitor and not a TV? If so, you're better off with a PVR-150 capture card and a separate video card capable of hardware decoding, like the nVidia FX 5200. The 5200 can also drive a high resolution TV (LCD or DLP with VGA/DVI inputs), which gives you some flexibility. Or a dual-headed card to drive both a monitor and vga-capable TV at the same time. If you already own a PVR-350, then you could consider an S-video to VGA converter to drive your monitor:

http://www.videocapturecard.com/video2vga.html

Richard.