[mythtv-users] Done with ATI

[Dale Pontius]

Stephen Shelton wrote:
> I've been really beating my head against the wall on some certain issues, mostly due to the mistake
> that was buying an ATI card.
> 
> I'm done with ATI. The open source drivers look promising, but I'm not going to sit around waiting
> for them.
> 
> I'd like to buy a nvidia card that:
> 
> 1) is cheap
> 2) is pci-e x1 or x16
> 3) has HDMI out (preferably with a low profile bracket, not a must)
> 4) can render uncompressed 1080p video flawlessly
> 5) is passively cooled
> 
> If anyone has had experience with such a card, please let me know what that card is!
> 
> Or, if you've managed to check #4 off the list with any particular chip, let me know what that is -
> that's an effective starting point.
> 
> Thanks a lot!
> 
In that case, you might try my nVidia 8400GS that has excessive overscan
on my good old Sony CRT.  The driver documentation has an overscan
adjustment in it, but it doesn't work for 8000+ cards.

Or you could try the nVidia 6200 that I swapped from another system
because I noticed it had an S-Video jack that was documented in the
manual.  It was also pre-8000, and under nVidia-settings I even get the
overscan slider.  When I boot text mode, or even the Gentoo grub splash,
the image is perfectly fitted to the TV screen, better even than some
cards fit to a regular monitor.  But as soon as X starts, the TV goes
dark.  I have NEVER gotten an image out of that card under X, after
ridiculous amounts of playing with xorg.conf, nvidia-settings, web
searches, etc.

The grass ain't necessarily greener.

By the way, I've had no trouble getting the open source radeon driver to
put the desktop from my ThinkPad onto the TV through the S-Video port.

Like all things computing, YMMV.

Dale Pontius