[mythtv-users] Recommended graphics card with tv-out?

[Joe V]

Mark,

Like I said, at the moment, I'm currently unemployed,
and have been so for the last two months.  Spending an
extra $45 to get a MythTV box working is not an option
for me right now, considering that I live in
California, and $45 is about 5% of my monthly rent.

At the moment, I'm trying to build a MythTV box out of
parts that I have lying around my apartment.  I tend
to upgrade a fair amount, so I typically have parts
lying around.

In addition, should I get this working (which I think
I might be able to), it might save some people $45 (if
they, like me, have an older Radeon card lying
around), which they can use to offset the cost of a
hardware MPEG encoder or something.

I figure there'e no harm in trying.  I'll be buying a
new box to run MythTV on anyway (since I'm finding my
Athlon 1.4 to be a bit sluggish), but I figure that if
I can reuse some of the other hardware, then I don't
have to spend as much money.  Worst case scenario, I
shell out the money for a scan converter (I'd rather
do that than buy yet another video card, as I have two
perfectly good video cards here).  And heck, it's fun,
I get a kick out of solving problems.

Maybe I lose some time, maybe I don't.  It's quite
simple to get TV Out working at an older ATI Radeon,
and most of the time spent is the computer compiling
stuff.  I start the compile, walk away, and check on
it inbetween innings of the baseball game.  I was
thinking about it, and it might be as simple as
recompiling the X server and Qt, which for me is easy.

On the other hand, if I was employed right now, I
probably wouldn't be messing with any of this.

Now then, for the rest of you, if I actually get this
working, without it being completely convoluted (which
I think is possible), I'll post instructions to the
list, and later on, get them on my website.

-- Joe

--- Mark <fairlane at voyager.net> wrote:
> I don't know what your time is worth to you, but
> mine is fairly precious.
> With that said, go out and buy a Geforce4 MX440SE
> card w/TVout.
> I got mine from newegg.com, it cost like $45. 
> Install nvidia driver.
> flawless TVout in less than 30 minutes.  Mines' an
> Albatron. Unless you 
> are the type
> that needs to bang your head on a wall to feel like
> you did something,
> then get an ATI or something.
> 
> Joe V wrote:
> 
> >Myself, I've tried with both a G400 and an
> >All-In-Wonder Radeon (the original R100 series),
> and
> >have had trouble with both.  There is a kind soul
> >(thanks, Matt) who is assisting me with the G400
> right
> >now, and there's a possibility that I'll actually
> get
> >it working.  Hopefully.  :)
> >
> >Somebody else on the list once said, "the Radeons
> will
> >work, but if you spend more time than $30-$45, go
> out
> >and buy a GeForce card".  I'd have to agree with
> this
> >sentiment, even though at the moment I'm unemployed
> >(so my time isn't worth much right now).  I don't
> have
> >a GeForce card kicking around here, and I'm not
> going
> >to buy one, but I do have the G400 and Radeon here.
> >
> >As for the Radeon, you can get TV Out to work -
> it's
> >quite the complicated procedure, and probably won't
> >work too well with many Linux distributions.  You
> have
> >to install an older distro that has XFree86 4.2,
> >recompile the X Server with the Gatos "devel"
> branch,
> >and then TV Out will work.  Unfortunately for me,
> in
> >doing that, and building MythTV, well, MythTV
> >segfaulted right away, definitely because of the
> >rebuilding of the X Server.  (If anybody wants
> >detailed instructions on how I built it, let me
> know,
> >and I can post them.  After getting TV Out booting
> >with X though, I don't think I can help).
> >
> >If you're going to use a Radeon, expect to have to
> >build everything from source.  I know how to do it,
> >it's just not worth my time.
> >
> >At this point I'm looking at trying to get the G400
> to
> >work again.  If not, then I'm just going to get a
> scan
> >converter.
> >
> >It all depends on how much money you are willing to
> >spend, and what you have already.  I'm trying to
> get
> >TV Out with cards that I already have, but I
> wouldn't
> >buy any of these cards, unless soemthing was
> >guaranteed (and from reading the list archives, it
> >seems that nothing is guaranteed).  You might want
> to
> >consider a scan converter also.
> >
> >-- Joe
> >
> >--- Ellen Spertus <spertus at mills.edu> wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>What tv-out graphics card is most trouble-free? 
> The
> >>database
> >>
> >>    
> >>
>
>(http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=pvrhw_gfx)
> >  
> >
> >>lists 5
> >>cards, but notes that tv-out is reported not to
> work
> >>on two (Radeon 7500
> >>and Tachyon G9000 Pro).  A third (S3 Savage 2000),
> >>which I own, has
> >>issues with xv.  That leaves the following two
> >>cards:
> >>
> >>- ASUS nVidia V9180 Magic
> >>- Matrox Millennium G400
> >>
> >>I've seen people having problems with both on the
> >>list.  Also, I'm
> >>wondering if cheaper nVidia GeForce4 MX 440-8x
> based
> >>cards would be as
> >>good as the ASUS.
> >>
> >>Thank you for any recommendations.
> >>
> >>Ellen
> >>    
> >>
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