[mythtv-users] The ideal video card for MythTV

Harry Orenstein ho_9 at hotmail.com
Mon Feb 9 10:40:35 EST 2004


>From: "Tor Hovland" <tor at nidaros.homedns.org>
>Reply-To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>To: <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>Subject: [mythtv-users] The ideal video card for MythTV
>Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 15:13:26 +0100
>
>I have searched and searched, but it doesn't seem like anyone has given a
>conclusive answer to this:
>
>Which video cards are ideal (or close) for use with MythTV?
>
>It would have to fulfil the following requirements:
>
>- s-video out that works well with X
>- supports XVideo (also on s-video)
>- supports interlacing and overscan
>- excellent driver stability
>- excellent picture quality on s-video (should be next to impossible to
>notice a difference from the stand-alone tv)
>- silent (must not be audible in the living room)
>- sensible price
>- must be available in retail
>- (other requirements I've missed :-)
>
>The PVR-350 seems to fail on XVideo and driver stability. General video
>cards other than NVidia often seem to fail on XFree support and XVideo,
>according to the MythTV docs, or they are old and unavailable. The GeForce4
>MX440 seems like a good bet, however I'm worried about picture quality and
>fan noise.
>
>If anybody is using a card that they feel meet the above requirements well,
>I'd love to hear. In particular, I would like to know if it is possible to
>get excellent picture quality and low noise from an NVidia card.
>
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OK, I'll take a shot at this:

There is no ideal solution.  As far as I have been able to tell, every
solution has its shortcomings.  Given sufficient time the PVR-350
may evolve into the best solution, but even tmk has stated that
he is unsure if yuv output to it will ever be achievable (anyone
can correct me if my impression of this is wrong).

Personally, I like my PNY GFMX440se.  nVidia provides an acceptible
driver (4363) which handles overscan, seems to be pretty stable,
supports xv, has excellent svideo quality (video-wise, text-wise it is
a little shakey), no fan, available retail, it even supports accellerated
video out using XvMC (which Myth supports).  Possibly best of all
it only cost me $20 AR.  I don't know if it is available for that price
any longer, but you should be able to find it for under $50 (I
caught a really good deal at TigerDirect).

I'm sure others will provide different perspectives, but that's my
0.016 Euros (0.02 US).

Not mentioned in your request are the possibility of DVI out or
component out, which might be considerations if you ever wanted
to go high-end for output.

Jarod, care to jump in at this point?   ;-)


-- Harry O.

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