[mythtv-users] HDTV w-PCI (not X)? Spd vs AGP? Nvidia & 878A compat?

[colliepon]

Wondering about a couple of semi-related questions regarding HDTV setups and Nvidia cards in particular.  :)  Reading other posts I get the impression that 3Ghz P4's are a pretty safe speed for HD 1080i and Nvidia is better because of hardware supporting it.  But i'm curious about when it might not be and why.

Is cpu usage of AGP vs PCI (not PCI express) versions of Nvidia running HD content much different?  (primarily the 5200FX and GF4MX, also wondering about the 5700LE if anyone has one)  I might end up with one of those Dells where AGP may not work.  Though if PCI sucks more cpu or causes massive bus contention i'll rule out those models.)

Can you still likely watch HD content while recording multiple channels (hardware) in the background without losing frames in either place?  Like say eight hardware MPEG2 channels with the other two cards being an HD card and Nvidia PCI.  :P (might as well assume the worst)  Or even four HDTV channels recording in the background with one viewing.  Would timing or latency issues probably kill this?  (since raw bandwidth and CPU should clearly be plenty for how little Hauppage cards take)

What about if two of the cards were BT878 cards? (if the previous is still likely to work)  I've asked and read similar questions before for SDTV which seem to imply everything should work fine, just wondering if it's also the case for HDTV.  :)  I'm fine with SDTV for now, but the broadcast flag issue has me planning for future compatibility instead of being marginally below where stutters happen.

(as an aside - i'm mildly curious why 3 or 4 BT878 cards are considered unlikely to work, if no one else tries in the future I may have to if I can borrow a couple. :) Afterall security-camera cards already exist with four BT878A chipsets on board recording full resolution and framerate to the harddrive - http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SEC400A&cat=VCD - the Kworld SEC400A, if still in stock.  Note i'm not suggesting divxing all four channels, just recording to RTJPEG and divxing one or two in realtime.)  With PVR150 cards being $60 after rebate (see Circuit City, today's advertisement) i'm not excessively curious though.  :)


Back to more serious though..  can anything deinterlace 1080i into 1080p for display on a nice monitor yet? :) (not sure if that's a standard, but someone makes a high end projector which claims to view this res too)

Semi related is wondering whether anyone is having problems with nvidia cards and 878A capture cards? (having read something like that somewhere)


Colliepon