While not strictly MythTV, the following test is related. I took my main desktop box (Gateway E-4500D, with 64 bit Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.80 GHz, running 32 bit Ubuntu 12.04) to the living room yesterday. It has an nVidia GeForce 210, which has an HDMI port. I connected that to my Panasonic plasma TV (TC-42PX14), a 720p HDTV. I wanted to see if that level of nVidia card was adequate to for MythTV.
Earlier in the week I used my MythTV test box to record Oregon Field Guide, the episode about the ice caves on the Sandy Glacier on Mt. Hood. I copied the mpg file over to my desktop machine so I'd be able to look at it on the TV. The picture was clear and steady, and the sound was good, too. Next I used HDHomeRun Config GUI to look at the stations I could see with my little dipole antenna sitting on a window sill. Channel 10 has good video and audio, as do a few others. Other stations had poorer video and/or poorer audio. I'm guessing this is related to the antenna, either the placement of it, or the simplicity of the Radio Shack dipole. Also, channel 8 does not appear at all. Again, I'm guessing this is related to the antenna, which sits on a north facing window sill about 5 miles east of I-205 exit 10. Another test I did was to switch between the cable input on the TV and the computer input while watching the same program. I chose the football game between San Francisco and Arizona. The video from the antenna was clearer than the video from the cable and, of course, it was HD, so I had the whole thing, instead of missing a bit of the edges. On this particular network it's not as important, but some of the networks put the graphic showing details of where we are in the game in the upper left corner of the screen -- all the way to the left. Apparently, Comcast (and maybe others, too) chops the edges of the HD image to create the SD image they send out over the cable. So, it appears that this lower end nVidia card is adequate. Any reason I didn't cover with my experiment that would suggest I need a higher end card? -- Regards, Dick Steffens _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
