On Wed, Feb 09, 2005 at 12:44:40PM +1100, jason bright wrote:
> If I'm using a TV that has VGA/DVI in, is it absolutely necessary to
> have a high(er) performance video card since I won't need the TVOUT?

Your card mainly needs a good xvideo.  You will find that in cheaper
cards than the fx5200, though the fx5200 is not that expensive.  You
certainly don't need more than it unless you plan on 3d gaming.

You do want AGP 4x at least.

I have had endless troubles getting 1920 wide xvideo on ATI, Unichrome
and Intel Extreme.   On ATI and Unichrome, I also get a problem where
the colours are inverted in MythTV, or in MythTV and other xvideo programs.
Haven't worked hard on those since my FX5200 is working -- mostly.

> (e.g. the FX5200 seems popular).  A lot of motherboards will have some
> Intel bare bones video built in. Going VGA out -> my TV VGA  would be

My test with the intel internal video indicated xvideo could not go to 1920
wide.  1280 wide was possible.  That was some time ago.

> the easiest and cheapest option. Especially after hearing some quality
> complaints about the nVidia cards SVideo output.

SVideo is fine, but SVideo doesn't do HDTV.

> 
> Is a card that can do XvMC really needed for HD if you have something
> like a P4-3.0ghz system? I'm thinking required bus bandwidth

No.  Plus, if you can get XvMC to work fully on your FX5200 with Myth,
you've found something I haven't found!  It plays, but seeking causes
strange effects and hangs.  Isaac reports this as fixed but I and others
still have problems with it even with recent CVS.

With your P4-3ghz you will do fine without it.

> (especially for viewing a recorded show while capturing one or more
> simultaneiously). Also if the output needs to be scaled from what is

Capturing takes no CPU, capture as much as you like with digital TV
(or hardware encoders)

> received to what gets pushed to the monitor? (say i wanted to capture
> in HD, but view in SD for some crazy reason).  Because this is a
> standalone system, I don't care if the CPU is running at 60% to get
> the job done.

That's about right.   And viewing HD in SD, while a waste, is still good,
better than viewing SD in SD.

But you will have to choose between your larger SDTV and the ability to
plug in a cheap 21" CRT that does 1600x1200 -- almost all of the HD resolution,
in fact better than most HDTVs.
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