[mythtv-users] How I got great quality TV-out on my nVidia MX4000

[Jeroen Brosens]

>Stephen Williams wrote:
>> Of course, the way to get 'optimal' TV-out from your Nvidia (or other)
>> card is not to use it's TV-out facilities at all and build a VGA ->
>> SCART converter for SDTVs (see http://www.sput.nl/hardware/tv-x.html
>> for example).
>
>Yes, this may be true for those of you who have SCART capability.
>
>Maybe I wasn't totally clear, but my instructions are intended for those
>of us in NTSC-land.   SCART isn't an option for us.  I can't see why it
>wouldn't also work for PAL, though.   (Now that I've indicated that
>800x600 is the way to go)
>
>
>-WD


I already went through the effort of making a VGA->SCART converter cable
(I can provide schematics and photo's if you'd like) hoping that it would
bring me the ultimate in MythTV viewing. But it didn't.

It gives the best colors (separate R/G/B and sync) and sharpness of all
possible methods, but... no smooth motion - on my setup that is. Some of
you may recall my postings about struggling to get either bobdeint working
on my SiS video (ASUS Pundit) or completely bypass the TV-out that can't
handle interlaced video properly.

When I finally got the modeline right for the VGA-SCART cable to work I
was hoping that the video encoded by my PVR-250 (interlaced material)
would play back 1:1 on the TV. Somehow, it gave the same blurry motion
that kerneldeint or linear blend, or even 'no deinterlacing' produces, not
50 fields/sec but 25 frames/sec. Not even close to the perfect display you
get using bobdeint. As an extra, the ultra sharp picture really made the
MPEG artifacts clearly visible which isn't a pretty sight too, not to
mention not being able to monitor the boot procedure because of the
garbled image.

So the cable wasn't really that hard to make and it only cost me € 5,- but
I found the results rather unsatisfying. See also an earlier post from me
on this: http://www.mail-archive.com/mythtv-dev@mythtv.org/msg03975.html

I gave up after trying *every* combination of driver/cable/modeline/X11
video output device/eating shoes and decided to buy a nVidia card after
Staffan Pettersson persuaded me (thank you):
http://www.mail-archive.com/mythtv-dev@mythtv.org/msg04131.html

The card is due to arrive friday, so I can finally get OpenGL
vsync+XvMC+bobdeint working.

-- Jeroen