[mythtv-users] Current wisdom on PVR-150/250/350/500
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org
Sat Apr 15 20:21:21 UTC 2006
On Apr 15, 2006, at 1:51 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Scott Karlin writes:
>
>> In this post: <http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2006-April/
>> 132083.html>
>> Jeff Simpson states "Don't buy a PVR-350 for any purpose."
>> Jeff, if you are reading this, can you elaborate?
>
> That's wrong. My PVR-350 works splendidly here, with Myth TV 0.19,
> and I see no reason why the PVR-350 would stop working in the
> future, since the only difference between this model, and the
> others, is the TV-Out plug.
>
> There's been some misinformation floating around the PVR-350,
> lately. There are two ways of sending the TV-Out signal out of the
> PVR-350. One, is using the native MPEG decoder in the PVR-350, the
> other is through the PVR-350's framebuffer.
>
> The only thing that's happening is that the support for the MPEG
> decoder is getting dropped. Which nobody really cares about,
> because it's always been clunky. The PVR-350's framebuffer will
> continue to work, and it's actually the better option of the two.
Nothing wrong with the 350, especially if you are building a small
machine without on-board graphics or an AGP/PCI-e slot. There is no
cost advantage if you have a graphics slot, because the extra cost of
the 350 is about the same, if not more, than an nVidia 5200.
Seems a pitty to buy an mpeg decoder and not use it though, and the
cost of a 150 plus a MediaMVP is about the same, just thought I'd
point that out.
>
> I also like the IR receiver that's bundled with the PVR-350. It
> makes things much, much easier. Saves you whole bit of trouble
> trying to hack together an IR receiver of your own.
>
The 150s that come with remote use the same receiver and an IR
Blaster. I don't know if current 350s come with a blaster, mine
didn't but neither did a 150 at that time. I don't think you can get
a remote and RCA jacks, but I don't think there's much difference
between available audio connectors, both options are crap.
A 250 is more or less moot, since you can't buy them new anymore
AFAIK, but you might find one used someplace, whether it's worth
buying would depend o the price.
I'd go with a PVR-150 for the first card, and get the remote and the
blaster. No sense buying multiple remotes though, so go with
PVR-150MCEs for additional cards. Use a 5200 for video, so you have
the possibility of HD in the future. Use a MediaMVP for a remote
frontend.
Unless you positively need two tuners per card, for whatever reason.
Then and only then would it be worth fighting the "500 fight".
Just my $0.02US/
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