[mythtv-users] requirements?

[Craig Longman]

Dane Kantner wrote:

>>I am still debating whether to buy a WIN-GO for $50 or a PVR-250 for $99
>>    
>>
>there seems to be a lot of discussion of problems w/ PVR 250... I'm
>thinking that there are two reasons for this 1) people don't rush to
>complain about things that work, and 2) its newly supported...  Is it the
>general consensus that this is a good card, a good card once you get the
>caveats worked out, or just troublesome?  I'd guess that there wouldn't be
>so many people using it if it were "bad" ... ?
>
well, it is a pretty good card.  i had not much trouble getting it 
going, except for the remote.  overall, here are my impressions:

1) it does fail from time to time, requiring a removal of the module 
(and the lirc_i2c module) to fix it.  this is a bit of a pain, and has 
bit me once or twice.  i'm sure this will get better, but for the time 
being it is a concern.
2) i don't think you can deinterlace in the same way as you can with a 
bttv based driver, at least i don't notice it change anything, and some 
of my recordings definitely show interlacing artifacts that are annoying.
3) the file sizes are relatively huge, compared to mpeg-4.  if you get a 
pvr card, get a bigger hd also.  again, you can adjust the bitrate, some 
people have problems with that though (i can't go lower than about 7Mbps)
4) there are strange video and audio artifcats from time to time 
(ghosting, lines, high pitched whine) that i've seen reported.  i only 
ever noticed the video ones, the ghosting has a work-around but the 
lines require a rm/modprobe to resolve.
5) you can't adjust the colour/contrast/brightness yet.

all the issues i've had so far are going to be resolved.  some of them 
almost are (colour,etc is now settable, just need to update myth).  so, 
for a long term thing, i wouldn't decide _against_ getting another pvr 
card, but i would take that into account. also, i heard someone else say 
that the bttv card produced a better looking capture, but i have nothing 
to compare my pvr captures with.  then again though, once i can change 
colour/contrast, i think i could improve my picture quality a bit.

hope this helps.

    CraigL->Thx();