[mythtv-users] Best graphics card choice? (HDTV and regular)

[Christian Hack]

> >The card has MPEG-2 support, so I won't need a terribly fast 
> processor
> >once I buy an HDTV.
> >
> >I'm told that the SE version doesn't require a fan on the 
> GPU, making it
> >the quieter option.
> >
> > > It means that it has an internal mpeg2 decoder that can 
> handle decodeing
> > > mpeg2 up to 1920x1080 resolution.  It's outputed through vga, DVI,
> > > (S-video is 800x600 max).  The TV encoder is probably 
> meaning it can
> > > output any HDTV size stream to the s-video port which is 
> TV, but it will
> > > be downscaled to 800x600).  I don't use hardware decoding 
> because it
> > > looks terrible when upscaling.  I run my display at 
> 1024x576 (16:9).
> > > Few lucky people who have nice viewsonic monitors can do 
> 1920x1080i but
> > > it looks great.  Hardware decoding has to be supportoed 
> by nvidia's
> > > driver (Which it is) and the application (Which mythtv 
> does, so does
> > > mplayer, xine, etc)
> > >
> One thing you should consider, however, is that I do not 
> believe that XvMC
> is under heavy development for Myth.  From what I can tell there is an
> update in CVS, but the overlay for XvMC does not seem to 
> support enough
> colors to do a good color OSD and the current (and perhaps permanent)
> OSD for XvMC is greyscale.
> 

Is XvMC really using the full potential of the MPEG2 decoder though? I
though it was just motion compensation which helps but isn't using the
full capability of GPU. If I could decode DVB HD in hardware that would
be great and would mean I could use a much lower end (i.e. quieter) CPU.

Is there any windows or linux software that fully supports the hardware
decoding? It would seem mplayer has some support.

CH