[mythtv-users] About to buy a tuner card that isn't well discussed, thoughts?

[Chad]

On 8/9/06, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
> On 08/09/2006 01:18 AM, Chad wrote:
>
> >I have been looking at alternative "hardware" encoding cards to the
> >Hauppauge flavors.  There doesn't seem to be a 'good' document on any
> >of the alternatives, so I guess I'm either on my own (buy one, try it.
> > Buy another try it...) unless others have some info I haven't found.
> >Specifically, the next card I'm looking at getting to test with is a
> >PowerColor T55E-P03 PCI-x (x1) card.  It claims hardware encoding (and
> >from it's system req's I'd guess it actually does) but I don't know
> >how well linux support is for the chipset on this card.  The chipset
> >is an: ATI THEATER 550 PRO according to the website.  I assume I
> >should be googling the chipset rather than the card, but there still
> >doesn't seem to be a lot of info on the chipset and linux...
> >
> >If nobody has any info, no problem, I'll be the guinee (sp?) pig.
> >However, if someone has some info on this card and linux, I'd like to
> >hear about it!
> >
> >
>
> I'm guessing Linux support is pretty much (or completeley) non-existent
> for that chip.  If anything, you may get a Gatos-style capture
> support--which is not V4L, so won't work with Myth.  See
> http://mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-3.html#ss3.1 in the section "Video
> Capture Device" under "Frame Grabbers" where it says:
> NOTE: The ATI All-in-Wonder cards (which are not the same as the ATI TV
> Wonder, TV Wonder VE or TV Wonder Pro) will not work as a MythTV capture
> device because the GATOS http://gatos.sourceforge.net drivers that are
> available provide only a limited subset of the V4L API. The TV Wonder
> series of cards are supported by the Bt8x8 Video4Linux driver.
>
> (The All-in-Wonder cards also use the Theater chips.)
>
> Mike
> _______________________________________________

Thanks for the info!  Maybe I'll hold out for a bit, or see if I can
find a local windows user to buy one that I can play with for a week
or so...

-Chad