[mythtv-users] RE: does the PVR-350 have issues?

Malcolm mythtv at lds.dyndns.org
Fri Dec 26 22:08:48 EST 2003


On Thu, 25 Dec 2003 11:02:11 -0500
Jay Goldberg <jay at ransdoc.com> wrote:

> Hi all
> 
> This has been a fairly disconcerting thread for me to read; it seems
> that some folks have been representing troubles they've been having
> as "issues" with the PVR-350.  I own a PVR-350, and I bought it some
> months ago knowing full well that the folks working on the drivers
> (http://ivtv.sourceforge.net) still have some way to go.
> 
> That said, the drivers are quite good and getting better all the time.
> You can indeed get X to display on the TV-Out of the PVR-350.  And you
> can of course then get MythTV to run on this X display.  I have done
> this with great success.
> 
> For X, it's a braindead frame-buffer only, so don't expect OpenGL
> applications to do well (say goodbye to the nice OpenGL visualizations
> in MythMusic).  However, the TV-Out of the PVR-350 excels at playing
> MPEG2 streams because of the hardware decoder.  The video quality for
> watching recorded and live TV is stunning on the TV-Out of this card!
> 
> What can't you do yet?  You can't play a DVD without a patch to mplayer
> which is discussed here:
> 
>    http://www.poptix.net/ivtv/Dec-2003/msg00421.html
> 
> You can't really play a DIVX or MPEG4 file through the TV-Out unless
> you transcode it to MPEG2 on the way, since the hardware decoder doesn't
> support this.

Does mythtv do the transcode on the fly?  I'm still researching
hardware for a myth box so I'm not familiar with how this is handled.

 
> You can't play FM radio yet, because the developers prioritize their
> work, and the video functionality is clearly more important at the
> moment. That's not to say that this won't be done some day.

I'm not really worried about the FM radio.  If it's supported some day
great.  If not I don't care.


> While I'm waiting until I can play all video formats on the TV-Out of
> my PVR-350 (soon!), I do have to keep my setup working in a way that my
> wife can operate it with the remote.  So I have a $55 nVidia video card
> that's currently my only X display, and does a capable job of everything
> MythTV has to offer (although the video playback quality is mediocre
> compared to the TV-Out of the PVR-350).


OK can you explain that a little more?  Why can your wife not use the Myth
box with the PVR-350?  Why do you also need an nVidia card?  I'm wanting
to make a simple to use box that the wife and kids can use too.

> I don't regret buying the 350, and I do recommend it highly.  It takes
> a little reading and attention to get everything working, and my vote
> is that it's worth your effort.  For anyone having troubles with this
> card, I recommend the searchable ivtv mailing list archive at
> http://www.poptix.net/ivtv

I see lots of posts saying that the 350 has very good video playback
because of the hardware decoder.  Wouldn't any video card with hardware
mpeg playback do just as good quality?

Thanks for your time
Malcolm


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