Jesse wrote: > Jesse Guardiani wrote: > > Dave wrote: > >> On 8/23/05, Mark Gardner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> Can anyone comment on the quality comparison between the two > >>> abovementioned chipsets?
Well just to add my 2p, I've had a PVR-350 running for about a year with TV/X out, I've just swapped to a nvidia Geforce4 MX440/128Mb/AGP 8x PVR-350: Advantages: Picture quality - Supposedly better[0] Hardware en/decoding - low processor usage, ideal for low spec 'silent' frontends[1] Disadvantages: It's physically fscking huge - wont for example fit in a pundit-R without case modifications Not 100% stable - crashes under ff/rew sometimes (ivtv v0.3.8/mythtv 18.1 fwiw. May be better with later versions) No games No boot msg's - If you care (I don't and have a serial console if I want boot msgs) Problems with DVD's (much better with XV support) Not pretty on bootup (pops and different colours->distorted image/last image before shutdown->kde splash->kde->mythtv), can have driver loaded earlier) No hauppauge driver support some mythtv functions don't work (vol control etc) No VGA/DVI Cost MX440 (5200 or similar should be better) Advantages: Cheap Stable nvidia driver support Games DVD'S DVI/VGA Prettier on bootup (blank screen->nvidia splash(if turned on)->suse late splash->(kde but for a split second and don't see it)->mythtv), depending on card/setup can have entire bootup from bios splash into mythtv. Easily replaceable/upgradeable hardware with _no_ config changes (new nvidia card, just pop it in, single driver means config and driver won't change) Disadvantages: Picture quality - supposedly worse[0] Uses processing power[1] Might be tricky to find a fanless one (I don't recommend it but if you're not playing taxing games you _might_ be safe to just unplug the fan, mine's died and the card works fine [and at 20-30quid for a 'upgrade' replacement I won't worry _too_ much if it dies]) FWIW IMHO unless you want a silent low powered machine or don't have an AGP slot I'd say save the pennies (or cents) and just get a cheap nvidia card. Anyone want to buy a PVR-350? Druid [0] TBH I can't see it but then again I've not got that nice a TV[2], on a BFO projector you might. [1] On a very unscientific test I got the following on playback: SuSE 9.1/2.6.11-rc2-bk3-20050125153357-default PVR-350 P4/3GHz/800Mhz (HT DISABLED) 0.0-0.7% cpu SuSE 10.0/2.6.13-15-smp MX440 P4/2.8GHz/533Mhz (HT ENABLED) 6.5-8.5% [2] Currently shopping for one though :-)
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