[mythtv-users] Suggestions for HDTV video cards...

[audin at okb-1.org]

	So I'm finally setting up a machine to serve as a pcHDTV host and
mythtv frontend.  It is going to have a P4 2.8ghz.  (Built on a Dell 400SC
server...which is currently available for $441 delivered with 128M and
40Gigs).

	So the question is, what sort of video card to put in it?  My current
test machine (a dual athlon MP 1800mhz) can almost decode 1080i to its Radeon
7000 card with XV.  However, that card cannot handle a 1920x1080 overlay, so
the right 1/3 of the image does not show.  I expect the P4-2.8Ghz to be able
to pretty easily decode 1080i using XV.  But, of course, that means I need a
card that can handle the full resolution.

	I am hoping to avoid nvidia cards as I have a string dislike of
binary-only drivers and have heard bad things about the quality of XvMC video.

	A further complication is that this box will be feeding an XGA
projector (through VGA), so I need to scale the video to fit.  (The projector
will actually take a 1080i signal, but the resulting picture quality is
really, really bad.)  One possible option here is to throw away every other
field (as someone mentioned having a patch for a while back) and then let XV
scale the width down by half.

	So is anyone here successfully feeding HDTV to a radeon card?  A friend has
pointed out Radeon 9100 cards for $49...

	So what are those of you here with HDTV using for video cards?

-- 
                                            Audin Malmin - audin at okb-1.org

It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
                                -- Voltaire