[mythtv] [ivtv-devel] [ivtv-users] PVR-350 and MythTV support

[Erik Mouw]

On Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 09:35:54AM -0500, Jeff Simpson wrote:
> > > Only if you want a limited-use frontend. You can only play mpeg2 on
> > > it, which means no automatic transcoding, no dvds, etc. It is a good
> > > way to breathe life into older hardware, but I can't recommend this
> > > card to anyone with a fast machine.
> >
> > That's what I use it for: an advanced VCR.
> 
> VCRs can fast forward and rewind. The PVR-350 can't, it's not supported.

On VCRs you usually use fast forward or rewind to skip to an
interesting part of the recording. Because of the sequential access of
the tape, you can only do that by going through all intermediate
frames. Even a 10 second skip would take several seconds because the
tape deck would have to switch to fast forward mode, roll 10 seconds of
tape, swith back to play mode, let the PLL lock again on the video
frame and finally display the frame. That took quite some time so
manufacturers added the possibility to do fast forward with view at the
same time, but to be honest, that's only a hack because you really want
an immediate 10 second skip.

Because it is backed by a randomly accesible medium like the hard
drive, the PVR-350 can do such immediate 10 second skips without
showing any of the intermediate frames. In my opinion that is an
advantage over the traditional tape based VCR.


Erik

-- 
They're all fools. Don't worry. Darwin may be slow, but he'll
eventually get them. -- Matthew Lammers in alt.sysadmin.recovery
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