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

[Cory Papenfuss]

  	I'm jumping in on this late but figured I'd add a few things.

> My take on this is that the 250/350 boards *may* have better video
> quality over the 150/500.
  	At the moment perhaps due to drivers.  The video capture chip in 
the 150/500 has the potential for higher resolution than the 250/350.  The 
250/350 chip has no comb filter so Y/C separation on composite input is 
poorer than the cxx chip on the 150/500.

Also, assuming I don't bother with the
> TV-out on the 350,
  	That's been my argument all along.  It's got the potential to be 
high quality for what it does, but the mpeg decoding isn't really 
necessary with a reasonable CPU.  The twitchiness of the driver, lack of 
Xv in framebuffer mode, and no console until X fires up means it'll always 
be a bit funky to set up.

the video capture functionality is the same
> across the line.
  	See above.  Practically speaking however, it seems to be the case 
that they're the same.

The product differences (relavant to Linux) seem
> along the lines of (1) baseband audio connector type, (2) IR jack
> present or not, (3) remote included or not, (4) single/dual tuner,
> and (5) cost.
>
  	True.  Also the "newness" of the pcb revision.  Sometimes they'll 
make changes to thing (especially whichever sweatshop-produced tuner is 
cheaper *this* week).  That can mean some teething pains as the driver is 
tweaked to include support.  Older cards which haven't been produced for 
awhile are much less likely to have surprises.

  	One other thing to consider that I haven't heard throughout this 
thread is heat.  The Rev1 -250 and the -350's produce a bit more heat and 
have heatsinks on the MPEG chips.  The Rev2 -250's, -150's, and -500's 
don't even need heatsinks on those chips.  For a fanless PVR, that may be 
an additional concern (10W is 10W).

-Cory

-- 

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* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA                                       *
* Electrical Engineering                                                *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University                   *
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