[mythtv-users] pvr-250 video resolution, quality, stability

[James L. Paul]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Monday 05 January 2004 21:07, Axium Computer Services wrote:
> I have just recently setup a system with two pvr-250 cards and I would
> like to know the following from other pvr users.

I have a box with dual Freestyle cards, an OEM version PVR-250.

> What is your video source (e.g. cable, satellite, etc...)

Cable.

> What resolution do you record at?

352x480. That's higher quality than a cable signal source and has the 
advantage of being 1/2 D1 resolution, which is compliant with both DVD and 
CVD so I can directly author to DVDR and CDR.

> What is your bitrate and max bitrate set to?

3500/5000. This gives me 1 hour for about 1.8GB.

> What is your audio sampling rate, and bitrate?

48000Hz and 224kbps. This works great for me with both DVD and CVD.

> How many gigs per hour do you get with your settings?

About 1.8.

> Are you happy with the results you are getting?

Extremely. That's why I use the config I do. ;)

> I'm still trying to figure out how setup my tuners for best results.

The setting I use are subjectively comparable to my Tivo in "Good" quality 
mode. This is substantially better than the Tivo's "Basic" quality mode, 
which is what I used to use for most TV content for years. I'm using an 
nVidia II GTS card for TV out, which has more impact on the TV diaplay 
quality than my choice of compression settings. It still looks very good.

> As far a stability goes, what version of ivtv are you using and what
> firmware version are you using?

I'm too lazy to look up my ivtv version, I'm using the one with the 0.12 
version tag, originally built from 0.11 source and upgraded to 0.12 using 
source.

> How is your stability with this setup?

Stable enough that I've only had to restart it once since 0.12 was released, 
and I think that was due to a hardware/heat issue rather than software 
stability. (Somebody closed the front door on the tv stand/cabinet the 
computer is in before I vented it.)

> All of this would be very helpful in getting my system performing
> optimally.

Averybody's mileage varies. My box is built on 3-year old hardware that has 
proven very stable for me. The only recent additions are the capture cards 
and the IR receiver I built. Other than the occasional XMLTV patch that is 
needed to keep tv_grab_na working I haven't had to touch things in some time 
and deprecated my Tivo weeks ago.

> Thanks
> Steven Potter
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE/+pWET8BYaKRUpkQRAqqeAJsHUtGM/QmGet1u56t/r+aMrdqS4QCfew4D
+sElWDqIqrjXibqYjjJvmSI=
=g38f
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----