[mythtv-users] Re: pcHDTV and HDTV

[Jarod C. Wilson]

On Tuesday, Brandon replied to Brandon:

> I have a card, but I'm also the one who wrote the basic support so I'm
> biast. ;-)  You can watch HDTV, change channels, seek backwards 
> (Forward
> may have a bug that I'm checking into).  The main problem we're facing
> is you have to use an NTSC TV program guide for HDTV, and shows do not
> always match from NTSC to ATSC/HDTV.  Once a grabtv for hdtv is written
> to parse html on titantv.com and fill a myth database with information 
> I
> consider that most of the final goal.  Fixing bugs and handling no/poor
> ATSC signals is another feature.  But it does work.

I'm getting one of these as soon as I have a spare $200... :)

> For hardware, I don't like hardware decoding as you can't do video
> overlay for OSD.  You will need about a 2.4Ghz+ system to be safe
> (Although 1.8Ghz is enough to just play a HD stream).  If you use
> hardware decoding a 1.2-1.4 ghz should be fine.  The performance needs
> to be improved in MythTV.  Another issue at times (How myth does it's
> scaling I believe).

How do you think an Athlon XP 1700 w/512MB of RAM and a GeForce 4 MX 
440 would handle playback? I may also have to switch in my spare 
GeForce 4 Ti 4400, so I can go DVI to Component video, speaking of 
which, where is the best place to get a converter that'll let me feed 
my HDTV's component video input from my video card (I'm just using 
S-Video right now, which is fine until I go HD... :). I've found one 
(linked below), but prices vary all over the board w/DVI cables...

Oh yeah, and the guy at Magnolia Hi-Fi (local audio/video phile shop) 
insisted it is impossible to output from my computer to the TV via DVI 
to component. I assume this would do the job though:

http://www.bestbuyplasma.com/Plasma/Product.asp_X_Sku_Y_DVIRCA2

Unfortunate digital to analog conversion necessary, but hey. (If only 
I'd waited a bit longer to get my HDTV, I woulda had one w/DVI in... :)

> On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 11:18:02PM -0700, Brandon Bremen wrote:
>> The new pcHDTV came out just the other day as you guys probably saw. I
>> read where mythTV got some preliminary support for it, and I am
>> wondering how that is coming. Also, what hardware is need to output at
>> HDTV resolutions?

See Brandon's HTPC doc:

http://www.sllug.org/how-to/linux-htpc/introduction.html

>> I've been lurking for a few days and noticed that
>> Jarod has an HDTV.

Yep.

>> How is the performance?

Not sure what you mean by that. I don't have any performance issues, 
but then I don't have an HDTV tuner card yet either.

>> And has anyone had a chance
>> to actually try the pcHDTV card?

Like I said, as soon as I can afford one...

--Jarod

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

Got a question? Read this first...
http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

MythTV, Red Hat Linux 9 & ATrpms documentation:
http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=rh9pvr250