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

Jonathan Rogers jonner at teegra.net
Tue Apr 18 01:52:03 UTC 2006


Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 04/16/2006 11:59 PM, Joe Votour wrote:
>> I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you.  The
>> PVR-350, (granted, in my opinion) has the best
>> TV-output that I've seen on a PC-based component.  It
>> has the huge advantage of being able to automatically
>> de-interlace when playing back interlaced content with
>> an algorithm that is apparently much better than
>> MythTV's BOB
> 
> Actually, I think it just outputs the interlaced recording without 
> change (because NTSC and PAL are interlaced).  The video card can't 
> generally do this because of a plethora of scaling/refresh/mode issues.
> 

I agree that the quality of the PVR-350's output is superior. Connected 
to a new Sony TV, lines are noticeably sharper and clearer than from 
either a Radeon 8500's or a GeForce 6800GS's SVideo. In contrast to the 
other TV encoders I've tried, I can actually read text in an xterm 
without squinting on the PVR-350's output. Also, though seeking and fast 
forwarding don't work quite as well as with some other output hardware, 
playback itself is nearly perfect. The only thing I'd like to change is 
to reduce the overscan somewhat. I believe ivtv allows the decoder's 
output window size to be changed, but I haven't yet figured out how to 
get MythTV to use it, though I did use MythTV's configuration to make 
the GUI and OSD sizes fit on the TV.

So, I think that despite price and some hassle, the PVR-350 is probably 
the best option for PVR functionality when recording from NTSC sources 
and displaying on an NTSC TV, especially since it doesn't require any 
proprietary software.

Of course, I have another Mythbox that I'm using to receive ATSC and 
display on an LCD TV, which is a whole other ballgame. The Radeon 8500 
that doesn't have good SVideo output works great to display on that TV 
via DVI. I know I could save some CPU cycles using an NVidia card and 
the proprietary driver, but I'd rather use all free software and I think 
that it'll do fine with a dual core Athlon64 X2 3800. I've also had more 
trouble getting an Nvidia card to use a funky DVI modeline the TV requires.

Jonathan Rogers



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