[mythtv-users] Current wisdom on PVR-150/250/350/500

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Sat Apr 15 20:44:51 UTC 2006


On 04/15/2006 03:51 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Scott Karlin writes:
>> In this post: 
>> <http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2006-April/132083.html>
>> Jeff Simpson states "Don't buy a PVR-350 for any purpose."
>> Jeff, if you are reading this, can you elaborate?
>
> That's wrong.  My PVR-350 works splendidly here, with Myth TV 0.19, 
> and I see no reason why the PVR-350 would stop working in the future, 
> since the only difference between this model, and the others, is the 
> TV-Out plug.

The PVR-350 is a PVR-250 with a hardware decoder that can /only/ be used 
if using the PVR-350's TV out.  (And, BTW, the PVR-150 is a newer, 
smaller, better, cheaper version of the PVR-250.)  So, buying a PVR-350 
= buying a PVR-{1,2}50 and paying extra for a hardware decoder and TV out.

> There's been some misinformation floating around the PVR-350, lately.  
> There are two ways of sending the TV-Out signal out of the PVR-350.  
> One, is using the native MPEG decoder in the PVR-350, the other is 
> through the PVR-350's framebuffer.
>
> The only thing that's happening is that the support for the MPEG 
> decoder is getting dropped.  Which nobody really cares about, because 
> it's always been clunky.  The PVR-350's framebuffer will continue to 
> work, and it's actually the better option of the two.

Yes.  The better option of the two, but not the best option.  You pay 
about $170US for a PVR-350 or $60US for a PVR-150.  For $110US, you 
could buy one heck of a nice video card that supports OpenGL, 
high-definition, XvMC, and more...  (Even if you don't do HD, video 
cards can do output to monitors and avoid the image degradation you get 
from encoding the signal into a 50+-year old TV standard (NTSC/PAL).)

Also, and more importantly, the current SVN head is using OpenGL code 
for the UI.  Although there will be a fall-back to the "same old 2005" 
style of UI for users whose video cards don't support OpenGL, the OpenGL 
interface is definitely nice (and offers a lot of possibilities that 
just aren't there for the non-GL UI).

So, the question becomes, why would I pay $110 extra for a PVR-350 to 
get less capability than I can get from a $40 video card (like an NVIDIA 
GF5200).  Then, I can take the extra $70 I saved an get a second PVR-150...

> I also like the IR receiver that's bundled with the PVR-350.  It makes 
> things much, much easier.  Saves you whole bit of trouble trying to 
> hack together an IR receiver of your own.

You can also get the IR receiver with the PVR-150 and PVR-250's.  If you 
get an MCE card, it doesn't have a built-in IR receiver, but you can get 
(and sometimes it's packaged with) the USB version.

Mike (who uses his PVR-350 as a PVR-250--without the TV out and hardware 
decoder)


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list