[mythtv-users] PVR 150 Quality Issues

[straurig at comcast.net]

> Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:17:54 +0000 
> From: James Thorpe <james at tfxsoft.com> 
> 
> > I didn't see anyone mention using the best capture port on that card 
> > which is the S-Video port. Mine worked great for a long time before I 
> > upgraded to the HD-PVR. 
> > 
> Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'll certainly be giving them a 
> go - I think this one is the first one to start with - I tried briefly 
> last night but only got a black and white picture through it - I guess 
> there's a PAL setting somewhere I've missed! 
> 
> Cheers, 
> James. 

James, 

Don't get too excited. I've had a production setup going for about 2 years now and I have the same complaint. The bottom line is that the PVR-150/250 cards are just terrible. There are many who take exception to this statement but plenty others who agree. I also run 720x480 and have the bit rate set quite high, 8mb/s. But regardless of whether I use the tuner, composite or S-video input it looks substantially worse than the commercial DVR I used to have, the built in STB DVRs or the ATI product line (too bad the latter has no Linux drivers). You are stuck with it if you want to use Myth with that kind of input. 

Luckily 90% of my recordings are in HD via an HDHomeRun and ClearQAM on my Comcast cable system. More interestingly I am using the Myth-box less and less because the On Demand service is carrying a lot of the content the family watches and we will preferentially use that instead of Myth (and there are few to no commercials to skip doing that either). 

st 
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