[mythtv-users] Hauppauge pvr-350 or pvr-500

[Marius Schrecker]

Thanks for all the replies. I was impatient and ordered an ATI Yesterday,
before the last couple of replies warning against it. It seemjed to work
ok last time. Time will tell if that was a bad move. I've also gone for
the PVR-500 as the dual tuners will definitely be a bonus if I can get it
all working, and the picture quality through DVI out will almost certainly
be better than any of the analog outputs. I see from the list that diverting
sound to spdiff out (AC97) may be a problem, but will work on that when
the time comes, worst case scenario I'll have to buy an external sound"card"
as I have no more pci slots to play with.

Cheers

Marius
>-- Original Message --
>Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 15:39:07 -0400
>From: Robin Smith <1canuck2 at gmail.com>
>To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Hauppauge pvr-350 or pvr-500
>Reply-To: Robin Smith <1canuck2 at gmail.com>,
>	Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>
>
>My next mythbox is going to be based on a PVR500 MCE with an nVidia
6600GT for video out. The 6600GT is fanless!!! (Its a Gigabyte) and
comes with DVI/Svideo and

Currently I am running a PVR250 with a FX5600. I simply removed the
fan from the vid
>o card on this one to keep the noise down.

If you are concerned about quality tradeoffs with the 350-based
solution wouldn't a 500 with fanles video address them (and still
allow for the dual tuners)?

Robin

On 7/3/05, Dewey Smolka <dsmolka at g
>ail.com> wrote:
> > >I think you may
> > >be a bit confused about your components. All of the
> > >x50 cards (and the 500) are hardware encoding. The difference is that
> > >the 350 does hardware decoding, which is completely irrelevant if your
> 
> >sending the signal out through DVI.
> >
> > Sorry if I was unclear. Was actually aware of that. The question is
whether
> > I should forget both the 500 and dvi out and go for the 350 using the
scart.
> > The picture quality will not be as good, 
>ut it may help keep noise levels
> > down.
> 
> Sorry about that. I actually noticed that in your post, but only after
> I had already sent mine.
> 
> > So, to rephrase:
> >
> > How much heat can I expect playback of high quality encoded film t
> generate
> > using software decoding?
> >
> > Also: The 350 only supports mpeg2 en/de-coding, right? So DivX, for
example,
> > will be software only anyway?
> 
> I can't speak for the 350 as I've never used one. I do, however, have
> a number o
> films in DivX and Xvid that play without problem
> (currently through the fx5200, and previously though a gf2). I'd give
> you temperature and CPU data, but unfortunately, my wife is listening
> to Mythmusic right now.
> 
> I can say that I've ne
>er had any issues with temperature, and I'm
> only using the stock PSU, CPU and case fans on an old beige-box tower
> with a P3 700. I've removed the floppy drive, one of the 5 1/4 bay
> panels and a couple PCI covers and replaced them with screens 
>o
> increase airflow through the unit. There's three 5 1/4" bays and three
> 3.5" bays that I have set up like this (from top to bottom):
> 5.25 -1 DVD RW
> 5.25-2 [empty] screen
> 5.25-3 HDD 20 GB (OS, MythTV, live buffer)
> 3.5-1 HDD 200 GB
> 
>.5-2 [empty] screen
> 3.5-3 HDD 250 GB
> 
> At first I had the two large drives sitting next to each other, but
> that generated a lot of heat. When they're separated, they run much
> cooler.
> 
> I could make the case quieter if I wanted, but t
> be honest, it's
> never been loud enough to bother me.
> 
> >
> > >Some m>odels of the nvidia fx5200 have CRT, S-video, and DVI out with
> > >passive (heatsink) cooling. I picked one up in the bargain bin at
> > >Microcenter for around $50, but 
>ou should be able to find a new one
> > >for $65 or less.
> >
> > Thanks, will look for that. Would you all agree that picture quality
is
> > better on Nvidia that on ATI with the ATI driver?? I have to say I was
impressed
> > with how my old ATI 
>oped with a 50Hz tv, but that is irrelevant now.
> 
> I've never used ATI, but it seems on this list that people have had
> problems with some ATI cards. It also seems like nvidia cards are
> cheaper, but that may jsut be because that's what I was 
>ooking for --
> i.e. I pretty much always skip over ATI cards when I look for hardware
> because I know the nvidia stuff works.
> 
> In all, it seems to me that the 250 + an fx5200 is a better deal than
> the 350, particularly because you can easi
>y upgrade to a CRT- or
> DVI-compatible display.
> 
> The only issue I really had with TV-out (s-video to RCA conversion) on
> nvidia cards is fiddling with xorg.conf to get a resolution that fills
> the whole screen. The right settings are on thi
> list, however.
> 
> One thing you'll want to look for is a utility called xvattr, which
> will allow you to remove a small blue border on the left and top of
> your screen when playing through nvidia's tv-out (it doesn't actually
> remove the bor
>er, but changes it from blue to black, which is the
> same thing as removing it in the end). The full command has been given
> numerous times on this list -- just search for xvattr.
> 
> Good luck
> _______________________________________________

>> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users at mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman
>listinfo/mythtv-users


Registered Linux user