My next mythbox is going to be based on a PVR500 MCE with an nVidia 6600GT for video out. The 6600GT is fanless!!! (Its a Gigabyte) and comes with DVI/Svideo and
Currently I am running a PVR250 with a FX5600. I simply removed the fan from the video card on this one to keep the noise down. If you are concerned about quality tradeoffs with the 350-based solution wouldn't a 500 with fanles video address them (and still allow for the dual tuners)? Robin On 7/3/05, Dewey Smolka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >I think you may > > >be a bit confused about your components. All of the > > >x50 cards (and the 500) are hardware encoding. The difference is that > > >the 350 does hardware decoding, which is completely irrelevant if your > > >sending the signal out through DVI. > > > > Sorry if I was unclear. Was actually aware of that. The question is whether > > I should forget both the 500 and dvi out and go for the 350 using the scart. > > The picture quality will not be as good, but it may help keep noise levels > > down. > > Sorry about that. I actually noticed that in your post, but only after > I had already sent mine. > > > So, to rephrase: > > > > How much heat can I expect playback of high quality encoded film to generate > > using software decoding? > > > > Also: The 350 only supports mpeg2 en/de-coding, right? So DivX, for example, > > will be software only anyway? > > I can't speak for the 350 as I've never used one. I do, however, have > a number of films in DivX and Xvid that play without problem > (currently through the fx5200, and previously though a gf2). I'd give > you temperature and CPU data, but unfortunately, my wife is listening > to Mythmusic right now. > > I can say that I've never had any issues with temperature, and I'm > only using the stock PSU, CPU and case fans on an old beige-box tower > with a P3 700. I've removed the floppy drive, one of the 5 1/4 bay > panels and a couple PCI covers and replaced them with screens to > increase airflow through the unit. There's three 5 1/4" bays and three > 3.5" bays that I have set up like this (from top to bottom): > 5.25 -1 DVD RW > 5.25-2 [empty] screen > 5.25-3 HDD 20 GB (OS, MythTV, live buffer) > 3.5-1 HDD 200 GB > 3.5-2 [empty] screen > 3.5-3 HDD 250 GB > > At first I had the two large drives sitting next to each other, but > that generated a lot of heat. When they're separated, they run much > cooler. > > I could make the case quieter if I wanted, but to be honest, it's > never been loud enough to bother me. > > > > > >Some m>odels of the nvidia fx5200 have CRT, S-video, and DVI out with > > >passive (heatsink) cooling. I picked one up in the bargain bin at > > >Microcenter for around $50, but you should be able to find a new one > > >for $65 or less. > > > > Thanks, will look for that. Would you all agree that picture quality is > > better on Nvidia that on ATI with the ATI driver?? I have to say I was > > impressed > > with how my old ATI coped with a 50Hz tv, but that is irrelevant now. > > I've never used ATI, but it seems on this list that people have had > problems with some ATI cards. It also seems like nvidia cards are > cheaper, but that may jsut be because that's what I was looking for -- > i.e. I pretty much always skip over ATI cards when I look for hardware > because I know the nvidia stuff works. > > In all, it seems to me that the 250 + an fx5200 is a better deal than > the 350, particularly because you can easily upgrade to a CRT- or > DVI-compatible display. > > The only issue I really had with TV-out (s-video to RCA conversion) on > nvidia cards is fiddling with xorg.conf to get a resolution that fills > the whole screen. The right settings are on this list, however. > > One thing you'll want to look for is a utility called xvattr, which > will allow you to remove a small blue border on the left and top of > your screen when playing through nvidia's tv-out (it doesn't actually > remove the border, but changes it from blue to black, which is the > same thing as removing it in the end). The full command has been given > numerous times on this list -- just search for xvattr. > > Good luck > _______________________________________________ > mythtv-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users > _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list [email protected] http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
