[mythtv-users] PVR250 Settings?

[Tom Marshall]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2004 at 07:52:05AM -0800, David Rees wrote:
> Jarod C. Wilson wrote, On 2/12/2004 11:17 AM:
> >
> >Well, I should probably add that I see very little, if any difference
> >between 720x480x8000Kbps and 480x480x4500Kbps when watching on my 27"
> >analog TV. On my HDTV, the difference isn't huge, but its there.
> 
> Thanks for all the info, everyone.

I would like to thank everyone for their input also.  I purchased a PVR-250
last weekend and I've been trying to figure out the best settings.  This
thread has been a big help.

> I was using 720x480x5000Kbps as my default, and just switched to 
> 440x480x3200Kbps.  On my 36" analog I can't tell the difference between 
> the two.  Even at 720x480x8000Kbps I couldn't tell.  I'll have to try 
> even lower bitrates when I get the chance.  I'm happy that I'll be able 
> to store 50% more video now.

I'm currently using 480x480 @ 3000/6000 and it looks perfectly fine to me. 
This is analog cable, s-video, and 27" TV.

My initial thought was that keeping aspect ratio was a Good Thing.  After
playing with various resolutions, it now seems that keeping the vertical
resolution at 480 and playing with the horizontal resolution produces the
best results.  This is probably common knowledge but I'm a very new MythTV
user, and of course, I had to find out on my own.  :-)

I have also noticed that if you set the bitrate too low, the system gets
really bad encoding performance from the card.  The picture loses a lot of
frames and the audio stutters.  Does anyone else see this phenomenon?  It
had me puzzled for a couple of days.  My first thought was my system is too
slow (Celeron 466), but the load was way down around 30-40%.  My second
thought was the filesystem driver couldn't keep up (ext3), but there wasn't
much drive activity.  The problem disappeared when I bumped the bitrate up
to 3000/6000.

-- 
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.  Tell him he should learn how
to fish himself, and he'll hate you for a lifetime.
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