[mythtv-users] PVR-250 or 350?

[Isaac Richards]

On Thursday 07 August 2003 10:14 am, John Wells wrote:
> Joseph A. Caputo said:
> > Nope.  You could look into a hardware MJPEG card like the Matrox (G400 I
> > think), which is supported by Myth.
>
> Hmmm...taking a look here
> (http://shopmatrox.com/usa/products/categories.asp?CategoryID=19&Column=2),
> the G400 is significantly cheaper than the PVR-350 (and a little cheaper
> than prices I've seen for the PVR-250).
>
> Is there any drawback to using the G400?  I may consider opting for one of
> these (rather than a PVR-250/350).

Yes, there's a _large_ drawback to using a hardware mjpeg card for capture -- 
files are absolutely huge, and decoding takes many times more cpu than 
mpeg2/mpeg4 decoding.  For instance, I have a p3-550 that's quite happy 
playing back full resolution (720x480) mpeg4 files, but can only decode 
quarter res (320x240) mjpeg, and uses almost 100% cpu doing that.

Isaac