[mythtv-users] SD only Frontend video card advice

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Thu Apr 19 14:24:48 UTC 2007


On 04/19/2007 07:44 AM, Bob wrote:
> Matthew Schroeder wrote:
> snip
>   
>> All I really need at this point is the S-Video out.  I do not need
>> additional processing power for this machine (like iDCT offload).  XvMC
>> would be nice, but not an absolute requirement.  The CPU I have will be a
>> 2.0Ghz Northwood Intel proc with 512mb RAM.
>>   
>>     
>
> With that cpu SD won't be a problem, just get one with good quality 
> svideo out, either a PVR 350 or I read somewhere that older nvidias with 
> separate TV encoder chip are slightly higher quality than the newer 
> integrated ones (for svideo only) but you'll only get Xv, not XvMC, but 
> as you say, with non MPEG2 video that doesn't mater.
>
> Good luck, I haven't tried outputting to a TV in ages so this is all old 
> advice.

I, a PVR-350 owner but not a PVR-350 TV out user, highly recommend 
against the PVR-350.  Claims of its "extraordinary" quality are highly 
exaggerated.  In reality, with the PVR-350 TV out either works (and 
works right) or doesn't work, so as soon as you get TV out, it's 
basically the best quality you'll get from that card.  With an NVIDIA 
card, there are many ways to configure it to produce output, and the 
vast majority of those ways are incorrect--and give poor quality.  
However, if you take the time to learn to configure it correctly, you 
can get excellent quality TV out from an NVIDIA card.  I did for years 
before I upgraded to an HDTV with VGA/DVI inputs.

And as far as which NVIDIA card, I recommend you don't get a GeForce 4 
or below (no GF4MX440, GF4000, ...).  The current proprietary drivers 
from NVIDIA only support the GeForce 5000-series and above.

As a matter of fact, I and a friend for whom I maintain a Myth box just 
upgraded our GF4MX440's to GF6200's (so we can avoid another upgrade 
when the 5000-series is end-of-life'd).  By looking around, we found 
some 6200's for the same price as the cheapest 5200's we could find.  
But, it's up to you.

Mike


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