On 2/1/07, Hans Verkuil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi all, > > Recently I've seen several comments that PVR350 support would not work > or would be removed from MythTV. While it is true that there is no > current maintainer for the PVR350 code in MythTV (AFAIK), that doesn't > mean that it doesn't work. The ivtv API is still unchanged and as long > as the code remains in MythTV it should work just fine.
As I was probably a person who made some of those comments, I feel I should back them up: #1, MPEG Output on the PVR-350 is working, but mostly unsupported by advanced features. Things like fast forward and rewind don't work, frequency scaling doesn't work, things like that. It does technically still play video, but only native MPEG2 (no mpeg4, no alternate formats, etc). The only way to play anything that isn't a native recording is to use the framebuffer or xdriver, whose faults are described later. #2, Myth is moving to OpenGL for menus. It now supports OpenGL and qt and you can switch between them. I can't imagine they will continue to provide both options for much longer. The PVR-350 doesn't support OpenGL and never will. #3, Framebuffer is slow slow slow slow, and it EATS cpu. I have a 3ghz machine, but the menus are still slow. I often find the X session using 50 or 60% of my cpu, just SITTING there. Forget trying to run it at the same time as another X session, it jumps to a full 100%. Playing anything that isn't a native mpeg2 video makes the system crawl. #3 XDriver is a great project, but it's always been buggy at best, and difficult to compile (with each version of X, the driver has needed another patch or hack just to compile). I think now that it's in some repositories (gentoo), it's better? (I've still had to patch it, but maybe by now it's better). So in summary, the PVR-350 *does* work, it just isn't as fully supported as say, any nvidia or ati tv out card made in the last 5 years for 1/4 of the cost. The video encoding is well supported, just like the 150/250/500, it's just the output that's flaky. In my own personal opinion, having owned a PVR-350, I would say that I'd be better off owning a 150 and an nvidia geforce card with TV Out. _______________________________________________ ivtv-devel mailing list [email protected] http://ivtvdriver.org/mailman/listinfo/ivtv-devel
