[mythtv-users] whats the best graphics card for HD playback?

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Sat Jan 21 20:38:31 UTC 2006


Frank Lynch wrote:

>On 1/21/06, Chris Ribe <chrisribe at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>I'm in a similar situation to you, Frank, and I am looking for an answer to
>>the same question.
>>
>>From what I've gathered so far, the NVidia 5200 series seem to work the
>>best.  I'd like to hear more confirmation on that before I go drop $40 on
>>one, though.
>>    
>>
>Does the amount of video ram play a factor?
>The 5200 seems to come with either 128 or 256mb of ram.
>I'd like to have my graphics card do as much work as possible, I want
>ot keep my cpu for tasks like commercial flagging (and occasional
>transcoding).
>  
>
RAM is not a problem.  It's primarily important for 3D rendering with 
many textures, so the 128MB will work well (be way more memory than you 
need) for HD MPEG-2 decoding.

As far as best card goes, the best card is one whose drivers support the 
functionality you need.  Right now, this means NVIDIA.  Don't get ATI.

The 6xxx series (at least some of them--there may be one or two 
"holdovers" in the group) of NVIDIA cards use pixel shaders for Xv 
(instead of the video overlay used by previous generations).  Myth has 
been designed to work well with the video-overlay-based Xv (including 
providing an ability to adjust hue/saturation/brightness), and still has 
work to be done for providing better support for the PS-based video.  
Therefore, you're probably better off going with a 5200 than a 
6800+--unless, of course, you want to do some GLSL programming for 
Myth...  ;)

Also, you won't get better MPEG-2 performance (including display of 
software-decoded MPEG-2 /and/ hardware-assisted MPEG-2 decoding with 
XvMC) from a "faster" or newer card.  And, on the bright side, the 5200 
is dirt-cheap compared to the newer-generations of cards, so save your 
money and go for a 5200.

Mike


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list