Hey thanks a lot to you and all that helped with the valuable info. I think I will get the HVR-1600 and rought it. Afterall, Linux is about pain right?? LOL, well its the card of growth and I expect its going to take a while to get this all up and running. So a bit at a time. LIkely the CX driver will develop faster than my system.
Thanks! On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 20:10 -0400, Andy Walls wrote: > On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 10:00 -0400, Carl L. Gilbert wrote: > > I am trying to decide between the Hauppauge HVR-1600 or the PVR-150. > > Many decision criteria will depend on your personal situation, use > cases, and requirements. We can really only inform your decision > process allowing you to evaluate trade offs. > > > I plan to use this card in a server in the basement that I will never > > watch video on. Its only a server to decode the TV signals and > > provide > > the DVD feeds, etc. My OS will be the latest Mandriva and I am > > running a > > XP3200+ on what I think is an Asus A7N8X-Deluxe with nforce2 with an > > AGP > > RIVA128 video card. (Don't hate!) > > > > > > I see the HVR-1600 is not 100% supported so it concerns me as I am an > > ivtv/MythTV noob and don't want to bite off too much new stuff at > > once. > > Installing and configuring MythTV will present you with far more > challenges than installing the cx18 or ivtv driver. > > Plus testing of MythTV and the drivers can be separated. mplayer, > v4l2-ctl, and ivtv-tune can be used to exercise either card without > MythTV. > > And yes the HVR-1600 doesn't isn't 100% yet. Current issues include: > > 1. ATSC support is only in stoth's development tree, and not in Hans' > tree or the v4l-dvb tree yet. This should be corrected in the coming > weeks. > > 2. The initial analog capture after modporbe of the cx18 driver will > suffer dropped frames and sometimes initially no audio. Stopping this > first capture and restarting the capture is the workaround. All > subsequent captures are fine. > > 3. Some users experience i2c bus errors that essentially make the > HVR-1600 card unusable under linux. From reports the problem appears to > follow the mainboard and not the card nor the linux OS image. No > solution exists yet. > > 4. VBI data doesn't work yet. > > 5. Audio capture from the analog tuner is only mono right now, and at a > pretty soft level. > > 6. Not an issue per se, but no one has reported test results on the IR > blaster. This may only concern you if you need the IR blaster to change > channels on an external cable box or an ATSC-NTSC converter box. > > > > Haven't > > even installed it yet. Plus, do I really need clear QAM? is that any > > better than the same channels on analog cable? > > You want digitial channels! Especially if you receive over the air. > The picture is just fantastic compared to the analog stuff. The bad > news is the FEC on the digitial channels gives you a very sharp > threshold between a watchable picture and an unwatchable picture. You > either get the station or you don't. There's about a 2 dB transition > region of the SNR from good picture to no picture. > > > > The PVR-150 looks like the choice. I don't need a remote because this > > is > > only a server. > > Well, if you go with the PVR-150, to keep it viable in the long run, > make sure you get a variant with an IR Blaster. You may eventually need > to use an external ATSC to NTSC convertor box (if your cable provider > ever dumps all the NTSC channels) and an IR blaster would be handy to > change channels on the box. > > Also in my experience, the NTSC tuner in my HVR-1600 has superior > performance to the NTSC tuner in my PVR-150MCE (LG TAPE-H series tuner), > when it comes to very weak signals. > > > > > But it looks like I have to watch out because an HVR-1600 > > may come in the PVR-150 box? > > Makes me wonder if I should just order the PVR-150 and if I am lucky > > enough to get an HVR-1600 then just call it a bonus and deal with it!? > > > > I wouldn't do that. > > If you want reliability/functionality to fill a near term need, get the > PVR-150. If you can deal with "annoyances" and wait until all the kinks > are worked out, the HVR-1600 is probably a better deal. > > FCC rules in the US may require Hauppauge to provide you an obvious > warning about the digital transition when buying an analog only device > (i.e. the PVR-150). This is likely not applicable to you if outside the > US. > > > > > Thanks for your tips or pointers to reading material which I know > > newsgroup like to point you too :) > > > > > > dnoyeB > > P.S. Remember, I don't really need decoding right? or will this help > > when > > I serve the signal? > > Decoders are for viewing (generally). Hardware decoders are especially > helpful on underpowered machines. > > > Regards, > Andy > > > _______________________________________________ > ivtv-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://ivtvdriver.org/mailman/listinfo/ivtv-users
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