[mythtv-users] Is NVIDIA worth the bother?

[Andy Wettstein]

On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 12:58:34PM -0400, Eric Sharkey wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Andy Wettstein <ajw1980 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > If you use the packaged versions of the nvidia driver from debian, you
> > can use module-assistant to build the kernel package.  Usually this gets
> > the job done (as root):  m-a a-i nvidia
> >
> > You can add the -l option to specify to build for a different version of
> > the kernel.
> >
> > You may need to run 'm-a prepare' first.
> 
> Yes, of course.  It's not all that hard.  It's not like you need to
> write the driver yourself or anything, it's just one of those extra
> things you need to do (and need to remember how to do).  If you
> upgrade your kernel every six months or so you probably need to go
> back and re-read the instructions to jog your memory and and see what
> little tweak has been introduced into the preferred build procedure
> since the last time you did it.  It's just a bit annoying.
> 
> With open source drivers it's just not an issue.

I wouldn't really consider that the case.  I've had to compile plenty of
open source out-of-kernel drivers for mythtv.  Relevant ones are at
least lirc and v4l-dvb drivers.  

That said, I would certainly love to buy an AMD/ATI video card and use 
in-kernel open source drivers, but I don't think they're quite ready.
Especially when I can use a geforce 8600 in a single core athlon 3000+ 
machine and get perfect playback of HD recordings.