[mythtv-users] Recommend: PCI video card with TV Out

[Bruce Markey]

Scott Wayte wrote:
> Hi,
>  
> Can anyone recommend a good PCI video card with composite TV out to be 
> used with MythTV?

Yes, any cheap nVidia card with TV-out and the nVidia driver
version 4363.

> I was thinking of the ATI RageII + DVD as it is "mentioned favorably 
> once" but all I read is about how hard and almost hopeless it is to get 
> the ATI cards working with TV Out.  Most of the recommended cards on the 
> MythTV site are AGP cards, and unfortunately the computer that I am 
> planning on using is a Dell without any AGP slot.

Unless you are already stuck with an ATI card you should probably
get an nVidia card instead. It isn't almost hopeless to get TV-out
working but it is almost hopeless to convince people that they
need to specifically check out the "devel" branch from GATOS CVS.
This version has TV-out support and just works. All other version
don't have TV-out support and don't work.

There are several reasons that nVidia is a better choice than ATI.
It supports overscan so you can match the image size to the edges
of your screen. There is support for vsync timing that significantly
reduces jitter during playback. ATI only supports 16bit color for
TV-out where nVidia supports 24bit. ATI only supports 640x480 and
800x600 but nVidia can do up to 1024x768 for many cards. And, from
my own experience, the color reproduction is truer on nVidia and
the v4l XV picture controls are more complete for nVidia.

--  bjm