[mythtv-users] Best graphics card choice? (HDTV and regular)

Harry Orenstein ho_9 at hotmail.com
Mon Dec 8 21:15:14 EST 2003


>From: Preston Crow <pc-mythtv at crowcastle.net>
>Reply-To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>Subject: [mythtv-users] Best graphics card choice? (HDTV and regular)
>Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:42:42 -0500
>
>I'm selecting a video card for my new system, and my research is telling
>me that I want a GeForce 4 MX 440 SE.  Here's how I reached that
>conclusion, followed by several questions:
>
>The card has MPEG-2 support, so I won't need a terribly fast processor
>once I buy an HDTV.
>
>I'm told that the SE version doesn't require a fan on the GPU, making it
>the quieter option.
>
>I'll need the SVideo-out for my existing TV in the short run and DVI-out
>for HDTV later on.  Unfortunately, most of the cards that I've found
>don't have the DVI output.  Am I missing something here?
>
>What really is the best card for both regular and HDTV output?
>
>--PC
>
>Somewhat related:
>
>On Fri, 2003-12-05 at 12:16, Brandon Beattie wrote:
> > It means that it has an internal mpeg2 decoder that can handle decodeing
> > mpeg2 up to 1920x1080 resolution.  It's outputed through vga, DVI,
> > (S-video is 800x600 max).  The TV encoder is probably meaning it can
> > output any HDTV size stream to the s-video port which is TV, but it will
> > be downscaled to 800x600).  I don't use hardware decoding because it
> > looks terrible when upscaling.  I run my display at 1024x576 (16:9).
> > Few lucky people who have nice viewsonic monitors can do 1920x1080i but
> > it looks great.  Hardware decoding has to be supportoed by nvidia's
> > driver (Which it is) and the application (Which mythtv does, so does
> > mplayer, xine, etc)
> >
> > --Brandon
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 04, 2003 at 09:20:52PM -0800, Chris Germano wrote:
> > > When a video card (say Nvidia Geforece 4 MX440) states that it 
>supports
> > > "DVD- and HDTV-ready MPEG-2 decoding up to 1920x1080i ATSC format" 
>with the
> > > integrated TV encoder chip what does that mean?
>
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Preston,

I have a PNY MX440se w/ svideo and VGA out.  As you say, I haven't seen
many (if any) 440se's from any manufacturer w/ DVI out.  I really cannot
speak to DVI-HDTV connectivity.

One thing you should consider, however, is that I do not believe that XvMC
is under heavy development for Myth.  From what I can tell there is an
update in CVS, but the overlay for XvMC does not seem to support enough
colors to do a good color OSD and the current (and perhaps permanent)
OSD for XvMC is greyscale.

Personally, I haven't been using XvMC, just xv.  It doesn't seem to hit my
CPU too hard, though I am sure that HDTV would probably make a much
bigger impact.  XvMC for MPlayer and Xine seem to be under active
development and for MPlayer 1.0 seems to be just fine (I haven't upgraded
Xine yet).

I really don't have a good suggestion for MPEG2 out.  PVR-350 supports
good MPEG2 acceleration, but only to svideo and composite.  Maybe support
for XvMC from nVidia will improve in future versions of the driver.  I don't
know that I'd want to put a bet on that (I guess $40 for a MX440se
is not to big a bet, though).

Hope this gives some perspective.  Good luck!


-- Harry O.

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