[mythtv-users] Oh to Choose PVR-250 or PVR-350

[Reza Naima]

I looked at mythtv many months ago, and finally went the dedicated myth
route the other day.  I can answer your questions as best as I can, but
my knowledge isn't all that great...

 
> Question 1:
> >From what I can tell PVR-250 works fine, I'm not sure but it seems like
> some people on the list have gotten the PVR-350 to work? Yes/NO?  I
> understand that the drivers don't support the video out / hardware decoder
> for the PVR-350.  But it does seem like the IvyTV guys are going to add
> support for the additional PVR-350 features.  Will the additional features
> of the PVR-350 every be useful for Myth?  If so I'm not against putting a
> few extra bucks in now instead of later for the newer cards.

>From my understanding, PVR-350 works, but it also has a decoder which
isn't going to be used.  Not sure if it'll be suported in the future,
but it isn't that hard to decode in software with most contemporary
CPUs.  

A quick tangent however... It seems that most people use PVR-250s
due to the built-in encoder.  I felt that having mpeg-4 would be more
useful than mpeg-2 (pvr-[23]50 output), and with my 2.8G P4, I'm using
about 20% cpu to accomplish this.  I want to go the 2 capture card
route, and doing it all in software is still feasable with my CPU.  

I'm using a LeadTek Tv2000XP deluxe card which has most all the bells
and whistles, and it's only $51 @ newegg.  However, I'm having a hard
time getting the contrast/brightness settings working with mythtv, so
but I'm sure I'll get it working with some fiddling.  


 
> Question 2:
> I see where people have setup 2 capture cards and can do simultaneous
> recording and liveTV on the same box.  Can one do 3 capture cards, 2
> simultaneous recordings and 1 liveTV in the same box or is that just to
> much?

You can use any combination of cards, just as long as you have enough
CPU to handle the streams, and your HD doesn't become a bottleneck.

> 
> Question 3:
> Video out to the TV, I know quite a few people are doing this on the list.
> I'm having a difficult time telling which video cards are working and which
> ones are only partially working.  All I really need is a couple
> recommendations saying "this works and in my opinion it works well".

I use the video out of my pundit, and that works fine.  


> Question 4:
> Any suggesting on what type of Motherboard / Processor will be supported
> the best by Linux?

Most anything will run linux.  Seems like some chipsets aren't happy
with the high pci bus bandwidth of myth.  I would pick  out a
motherboard you like, make sure your CPU supports SSE (faq 18.1 i
think), and then do a search in the archives for the chipset on the
motherboard to see if anyone's complained about it.


hope that helps
-r

 
> I think the rest I can sit down and plug away at before I bother anyone
> else.
> 
> I appreciate any suggestions.  Sorry for the long post.
> 
> Jason Vannest
> 
> 
> 

> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users