[mythtv-users] Video Cards and ratings

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Mar 11, 2008, at 9:49 PM, Benjamin Peikes wrote:

> Back with some hardware questions. What would folks recommend for a  
> video
> card.
> 1) Recording
> 2) Playback on standard TV
> 3) Playback on HDTV

You say video card, but you mention recording. Do you mean video  
capture device?

If you mean video card, get something cheap. I have a fanless nVidia  
7100 that I got from newegg for about $30. This replaced an nvidia  
6600OC with a loud fan and lots of RAM which was about $180 when I  
bought it. They work both exactly the same for me except now I have  
less noise and use less power.

If you mean video capture device, it depends on your video source and  
what country you're in. There is a list of supported video capture  
devices here:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Video_capture_cards

> I'd be interested in what card was used to create the screen shots  
> on the
> MythTV site.
>
> I'd love buffering where you can rewind a bit while watching live TV.

Any card would do this. It's functionality of the software, not the  
hardware.

> Plus,
> I'd like to be able to see the MythTV menus overlayed on top while I'm
> watching TV, particularly while browsing.

No card will do this. There is no such functionality in MythTV.

Someone did build a system based on MythTV (among other open source  
applications) that had menus overlayed on top of TV and whatnot, but I  
don't recall what it's called and I have no idea if they have  
maintained that code at all. I'm sure someone else who remembers will  
post about it.