[mythtv-users] Cheap PVR350 Card?

Kevin Barsby Kevin.Barsby at Sun.COM
Thu Jun 10 18:39:26 EDT 2004


> The simple answer is yes, but it isn't quite that easy.  The source code
> from VIA is only available to large OEMs, so it is not in the public 
> domain.  This is a bad thing, as Alan Cox pointed out to me a few years
> back after the Linux show in London.  The problem is that you become 
> completely dependant on the manufacture.  VIA only support some Linux
> distros (RedHat is supported, Debian is not), so what do you do if your
> distro is not supported.

I am running the via binary drivers under Gentoo without any problems.
Using instructions found here:
http://www.epiawiki.org/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=EpiaXfree. The manual
installation section would probably work with most distros.

I /think/ VIA released most of the source to their drivers after a lot
of pressure, that has helped the unichrome (unichrome.sourceforge.net)
along, with the opensource xfree / x.org drivers. Mpeg2 decoding is
supported by both the binary and open source driver. I've been using the
binary drivers for a couple of months now and am reasonably happy with
them.

www.viaarena.com is Via's support site, that has a lot of linux
information on site.

Cheers
Kev



More information about the mythtv-users mailing list