[mythtv-users] Video Quality

[Adrian Byng-Clarke]

Hello,

I am in the process of ironing out a few kinks with my mythtv but I was
wondering about what type of quality people are experiencing with their
recordings off of digital cable/cable TV. I'm using an Osprey 200, an entry
level video card. 

How much of a video quality upgrade does one get by moving from a basic card
like that to one of the PVR cards like the Hauppauge PVR 350. For example
does the on board Mpeg 2 make that much of a difference? After all can't one
just compress the signal after capture (sacrificing time and HD space for
$$$) or is there more to it than that.

Perhaps people could post samples of video captured. I don't want to get
anyone in trouble - maybe they could just post something off of public TV
etc... I just want to get a sense of the quality. For example Tivo's high
quality setting looks to my eye exactly like the broadcast signal coming in
- there are no artifacts on a TV.  Is this possible with a Linux PVR rig?
Also is it only possible with the higher end capture cards? 

Personally I probably won't want to use mythtv to actually watch my
recordings. I'm perfectly content saving them to DVD-R and watching them on
my DVD player. I'm just wondering if that will look as good as the original
broadcast or will it look strange. How successful is mythtv as a digital
VCR?

Thanks,

Adrian