[mythtv-users] Intro & question

[Aaron Howard]

Hello,

I just joined the users list and thought I'd introduce myself and ask
a question or three.

A bit about my current setup:
Athlon XP 1500+
768MB RAM
80GB IDE HDD (2 x 40GB actually with one dedicated to MythTV)
KWorld TV878RF-PRO tuner card
NVidia GeForce 3 video card
Ubuntu 6.06
MythTV 0.19

I have Time Warner Digital Cable (a Pioneer BD-V1100 box) and hadn't
planned on doing anything higher than 480p stuff with my setup but I
just bit the bullet on a 1280x720 (720p) native projector.  I'm
putting a home theater in my basement I want to setup my system as a
HTPC (it's a mid-tower case so it'll be in a separate area off to the
side from my actual HT room).

So, a few questions:
1. My projector is an InFocus with the proprietary M1 connection.  I
can get a 25' DVI-to-M1 cable to go straight from my GeForce card into
the projector and hopefully drive it natively at 1280x720.  Question
is: is this a good way to do it? I know standard SD channels aren't at
that resolution but figure the combination of MythTV and the video
card driver will handle the upscale better than just sending the
projector the SD signal and letting it upscale the image.  I also
figure for MythDVD and such, it'll also upscale and all that jazz
(again, not sure if it's MythTV or the video card driver that'll
handle that upscaling thing).

2. I obviously do not have any capability of receiving HD signal right
now.  So I need to get an HD card or call up my TW Cable and upgrade
or both.  As for the HD card, I know the pcHDTV cards are considered
wonderful but does anybody have any experience with the KWorld ATSC
110 card?  Actually, I see I can get the KWorld ATSC 110+MCE-200 combo
for less than a pcHDTV 5500 card.  Does anybody know if the MCE-200
card will work w/ MythTV and if I can pipe HD video from the ATSC 110
card to it to use its onboard MPEG-2 encoder?  It appears the only
option for HD cards w/ built in MPEG encoder chips are in the > $2,000
range.

3. Should I upgrade to a newer video card?  The GeForce 3 has the
necessary bits to support XvMC as I understand it...does upgrading it
really get me much?  Maybe an HDMI port?  Would it be better to get
that and then buy the HDMI-to-M1 cable for the InFocus projectors?

That's enough for now.

Thanks in advance,
-Aaron
-- 
==
Aaron Howard
archanoid at gmail.com