Michael Bochynski wrote:
On Mon, 2005-10-24 at 13:41 -0400, Michael T. Dean wrote:
Michael Bochynski wrote:
I want to replace one of those components, by my question is whether
it makes more sense to get PVR-350 (I don't need dual tuners of 500,
since I use cable box) or nice NVIDIA graphics card for better
support for linux?
IMHO, the PVR-350 is a waste of money (and I wasted money on one) in
today's world. It made sense when 720x480 MPEG-2 decoding strained
general-purpose CPU's, but any processor that's worth using in a Myth
box (1GHz or better) will barely notice the effort. I'm using an NVIDIA
card (and not using the TV out on my PVR-350) because it has so many
advantages:
- OpenGL support
- Choice of resolution, overscan, etc. (allows you to choose the
best combination of scaling, size, position, etc. for your needs)
- Choice of outputs (i.e. built-in TV out, using VGA to a VGA to
NTSC/PAL converter, using VGA/DVI to a monitor/digital TV, etc.)
- If you get a 5200 or better, ability to support HDTV when you
decide to switch
- Is not a single-purpose device, so it continues to be useful even
if you stop using Myth. (OK, I don't think it's possible for someone to
stop using Myth once they've started, but it's the principal of the matter.)
And only one disadvantage:
- Does not provide the placebo effect for users, so video quality is
significantly worse. ;) (Which actually means you must learn how to
configure it for good video quality. With a PVR-350, you just need to
learn how to configure it and you get good quality--the PVR-350 is an
all or nothing configuration because it doesn't give you the options
that I mentioned as a benefit above, so you can't configure it for
poor-quality output.)
OK, so the NVIDIA proprietary drivers are the real disadvantage, but
they're much better than the ATI drivers, so if you've got to pick one,
NVIDIA's the way to go.
Thanks for suggestions. before spending any money I will play around
with settings.
However, honestly, the advantages of NVIDIA card you presented are not
overwhelming. The MythTV box will be used for MythTV only, nothing else,
hence OpenGL does not matter, am I right?
OpenGL is currently used by MythMusic (Goom!!!! among other
visualizations), and many games that are played using MythGame. Then,
there's OpenGL vsync for smooth frame delivery.
Also, MythUI--which will probably show up in 0.20--will use OpenGL as
the painting backend by default and will be the best reason to have
hardware-based OpenGL acceleration support.
I don't even have, and don't
plan to have, a regular monitor/LCD at home which I could use :) Signal
(MythTV) goes to TV out only.
Right now I output TV to my receiver and then to TV. While HDTV is a
nice-to-have, i do not expect to have it in the next 6 - 12 month, while
I will watch TV in the next 6 - 12 months :) Hence having DVI, HDTV and
so on is not the highest priority. I will probably want to add it,
Yeah, me too. But then again, plans change. I just bought an
HDTV--something I've been saying I wouldn't do... But, it's your
decision to make--I was just trying to answer your question, "whether it
makes more sense to get PVR-350 (I don't need dual tuners of 500, since
I use cable box) or nice NVIDIA graphics card for better support for
linux?"
I'm just thinking that if you're truly concerned with the pursuit of
video perfection, you'll eventually find that NTSC/PAL--not your
video/capture card--is the weak link in the chain. :)
I am going solely after the picture (TV) quality. I do not mind
proprietary drivers, since I hope I have my compile-from-source times
behind me, starting with the (very) early Linux times. I know, however,
that ATI (proprietary) drivers are worse than NVIDIA ones. BTW, which
NVIIDA card is worth looking at? I don't want to end up with card which
is not supported under Linux at all.
Like I said, the PVR-350 will provide that placebo effect that makes you
believe for sure that you have the best possible picture quality. ;)
Mike
Totally OT rant: I've got to admit that having received this message
from you, I'm extremely disappointed with Evolution. I know it's trying
to be the Outlook replacement, but do they really want to make it as
awful as Outlook? It actually puts a one-celled table containing
another one-celled table containing your entire message (and, therefore,
the entire body of the HTML page) in the HTML version of your multipart
message. And, it does the same HTML-obfuscation that MS FrontPage
does--i.e. opening and closing font tags all over (although FrontPage
goes much farther than Evolution with the obfuscation). And, I won't
even mention the deprecated HTML 4.01 instead of xHTML (or even
xHTML-like HTML)...
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