EPIA + Which PVR ?? Was [Re: [mythtv-users] VIA EPIA-M]

[Scot L. Harris]

On Tue, 2005-03-29 at 06:57, Ow Mun Heng wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-03-20 at 15:52 -0600, Ron Johnson wrote:
> 
> > 
> > To bottom-line this thread:  An "1GHz EPIA-M with a PVR-150" 
> > should easily be able to watch live TV because...  
> > 
> > - the PVR-150 is H/W encoding to MPEG-2
> > - a MythTV process is writing that encoded stream to disk
> > - another process is pushing the encodes stream from disk to the
> >   Unichrome MPEG-2 decoder.
> > - the Unichrome driver is pumping the decoded data to the video
> >   card.
> 
> I just got to ask.. because I'm confused with all the different PVR-XXX
> versions out there.
> 
> PVR-150 = PVR-250 = Same Price - What gives??
> 
> But having said that, I guess my main question is, which of the PVR
> cards can I use for the most fundamental of uses.
> 
> 1. Watch Live TV
> 2. Record Live TV (Digital satellite Broadcast)
> 3. Have a Remote to play with.
> 
> What's the difference that you ppl are seeing?

Which Hauppauge card you get depends a little on what you want to do
with the Mythtv system.

My first mythtv box has a PVR-350 and a PVR-250MCE.  I am using the
PVR-350 output to the TV which works great for what I am using it for.

The PVR-250 is essentially a PVR-350 but does not have the TV output or
the remote control input.  I use it as just another encoder card for
recording shows.  

The PVR-350 comes with a remote control and provides Svideo and
composite outputs.  The caveat is that the output is good for things you
record (the PVR-350 has a hardware decoder for mpeg2) but apparently
getting a DVD to play using the PVR-350 output is not possible.  

If you want the mythtv box to be able to play DVDs apparently you are
better off using a standard video card output to the TV.  This means you
will need more CPU.  And if you go that route the PVR-350 does not make
as much sense.

I am not familiar with the PVR-150.  However the PVR-500 is interesting
as it has two tuners on the one card.  I have found that having at least
two tuners is required, otherwise there are many conflicts in
scheduling.  Two tuners eliminate most of the conflicts.  Three tuners
would be optimum, there should be very few conflicts if any with three
tuners.

The TV output from the PVR-350 replicates the input signal so well that
I doubt that I could tell the difference between a live broadcast from
the cable company and what is being played back from the mythtv box.

In the next few months I plan on building a cheaper cooler quieter
frontend box and may opt for using a video card output so I can get the
DVD playback working.  I also like the live tv listings better over the
video card.  With the PVR-350 the tv listings overlay the entire
picture.  When I was testing it seems that the output to the monitor put
the current channel in a small box in the upper right corner and
provided the listings below that.  Much easier to view.  So if you are
not going to use the PVR-350 output you may be better off getting a
PVR-250 and some other remote control setup.

Not sure if there is much documentation describing these trade offs or
not.  I found out during the build of my first box.  

-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

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