[mythtv-users] Current wisdom on PVR-150/250/350/500

[Sam Varshavchik]

Joe Votour writes:

> 
> 
> --- Sam Varshavchik <mrsam at courier-mta.com> wrote:
> 
>> Brian Wood writes:
>> 
>> >> The mpeg decoder is just one half of the story. 
>> The other half is  
>> >> the TV-Out.  That alone saves you the trouble of
>> getting a VGA-to- 
>> >> composite converter.
>> > 
>> > I haven't been able to purchase a video card
>> *without* a TV output (S- 
>> > Video and composite) lately, even if I wanted to
>> for some reason.
>> > 
>> > A 5200-based card can be had for under $50, and
>> they all have TV-outs.
>> 
>> I must admit that I haven't really been following
>> the video card industry 
>> lately.
>> 
>> Can someone recommend a video card that:  A)  Has
>> TV-Out, and B) has native 
>> support in x.org, and does not require to use
>> proprietary binary drivers for 
>> basic functionality, and TV-Out.
>> 
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>> 
> 
> With the criteria you've given, I don't think that
> there are any.

That's what I thought.  This was the situation the last time I checked, I 
just wasn't sure that, perhaps, things have improved.


>                 Well, the closest I can think of is
> the Matrox G400, which is many years old.  Define
> basic functionality.  :)
> 
> For modern ATI or nVidia cards to use TV-Out, you'll
> need binary drivers.  I think that the R100 and R200
> series (ATI) have open source drivers (don't know how
> stable they are), and there's been some work done on
> the later ones (up to R400 series).

So the bottom line is that the PVR-350 appears to be the only way to get 
TV-Out without using closed binary drivers.

I do not see any possibility for either Nvidia or ATI to make progress on 
releasing their drivers as free software, as long as people continue to 
choose them over the free software alternatives.

My personal choice is to give a few hundred bucks to Hauppauge, and hope 
that the folks at http://lists.duskglow.com/open-graphics/ will come 
through.


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