[mythtv-users] Video Out Quality Hauppauge PVR-350 vs Geforce4 MX

[Taylor Jacob]

I recently setup MythTV on a box using a GeforceMX AGP video card and got
it hooked up to my TV.  One of the first things that I noticed was the
black bars around the video in X.  I added the OverScanLines setting to my
XFree86Config file, and got the black bars reduced considerably, yet there
is still a small area that is noticable at the Maximum setting of 1.0.

My main problem is that I have noticed that horizontal movement seems to
be jerky even with de-interlacing turned on.  It is not that noticable
when you are watching the news or a sitcom, but I attempted to watch a
hockey game and very quickly had to stop watching because it became too
irritating with all the jerking.

I looked at all of the supported video modes on the geforce card in my
XFree86 log file, and I noticed there was no resolution that would be for
NTSC (or PAL for that matter) at all.  (720x480 or something slighly
higher to deal with vertical blanking like 720x525).  I tried a few
different settings and all seemed to yield the same results.

Is it correct to assume that this problem lies in the fact that the
Geforce card simply scales video output from 640x480 (or whatevr
resolution you are running your X Session as) down to something that will
fit on a tv plus a bit of black to make sure nothing is lost in the
natural overscan of the TV?  Resulting in scanlines being misplaced and
scaling not being done on a 1:1 ratio which would make panning very
noticable?  If this is the case, then I can't see these cards as being a
real good solution for MythTV (At least in my opinion).

I was looking at the Hauppauge PVR 350 card since it has a TV out. I
noticed somewhere on the list that it had been mentioned that it keeps
interlacing intact.  Does it do this by running at a resolution that is
native to Televion output and therefore requires no scaling?

I guess to sum things up after my quite longwinded post will the output
from a Hauppuage PVR 350 solve my complaints, and also how does the
Hauppauge deal with the overscan area?  Does it "box" everything like my
Geforce4 MX card is doing, or should I expect video that is the same
quality as from my tivo.

Taylor