[mythtv-users] Bitrate/quality on PVR-150

[Robin Gilks]

> I have done extensive testing of PVR-150 et al settings in the interests
> of
> better quality. I can confidently say that you should run it at 6MBPS
> avg/8MBPS peak for 720x480 capture. Any less and motion artifact gets bad.
> Any more and no improvement can be noted. The best way to test this is to
> watch the crawl line on CNN et al followed by some sports like basketball.
>
> Quite frankly encoder quality for Myth sucks compared to Tivo or STB DVR
> appliances. It is Myth's biggest weakness (after the fact that mere
> mortals
> need not try to set it up!) Decoder quality is awesome as anyone can see
> from playing DVDs, but the PVR series of tuners and encoders are terrible.
> It's bad with straight video in from a STB (composite or s-video) and
> worse
> with the tuner. You might not notice if you've never owned a commercial
> DVR
> or DVD recorder but I have and the difference is dramatic.
>
> Do we have any better choices for tuner/encoders yet?

I'd recommend DVB-T or DVB-S - across a room you won't see the difference
between them and a DVD.

Talking of DVDs and bit rates, I'd recommend a look at:

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/tutorial/bitrate.html

Your quite right that 8M peak may be required - a lot depends on your
source material (tuner or rubbish Composite output from an STB). From the
above link you'll see that half D1 rate but full NTSC/PAL geometry is
probably appropriate for most people.


-- 
Robin Gilks