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

[Brian Wood]

On Apr 15, 2006, at 4:25 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:

> Brian Wood writes:
>
>> On Apr 15, 2006, at 1:51 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
>>> 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.
>> Nothing wrong with the 350, especially if you are building a  
>> small  machine without on-board graphics or an AGP/PCI-e slot.  
>> There is no  cost advantage if you have a graphics slot, because  
>> the extra cost of  the 350 is about the same, if not more, than an  
>> nVidia 5200.
>> Seems a pitty to buy an mpeg decoder and not use it though, and  
>> the  cost of a 150 plus a MediaMVP is about the same, just thought  
>> I'd  point that out.
>
> The mpeg decoder is just one half of the story.  The other half is  
> the TV-Out.  That alone saves you the trouble of getting a VGA-to- 
> composite converter.

I haven't been able to purchase a video card *without* a TV output (S- 
Video and composite) lately, even if I wanted to for some reason.

A 5200-based card can be had for under $50, and they all have TV-outs.


>
> If all you want is to watch TV on your VGA monitor, the PVR-350 is  
> a waste of money.  But, if you want to watched your recorded shows  
> on a big screen TV, you need TV-out.
>
> There are a small number of new small-sized LCD TVs on the market,  
> which are also capable of receiving a VGA signal, so you don't need  
> a PVR-350 with them, either.


My 32" LCD has a VGA input, as well as DVI. Once compare the two you  
will realize how bad NTSC encoders look, at least the cheap ones.