[mythtv-users] Improving DVD playback

[Stefan Haflidason]

Hi,

I'll be going down to London on Friday with Myth system in-hand to install
it in my brother's house (it's a surprise present). So, you might be hearing
more from me as I scrabble to try and get everything working :-)

The questions in this post will seem a little obvious, and I'm doing the
best I can to discover the answers through testing. The problem I am having
is that I cannot simulate my brother's setup that well, as the only video
source I have is another computer which gives a less than perfect s-video
signal. Your thoughts based on your experiences will be very useful.

When I first researched MythTV two months or so ago, the PVR 350 seemed like
the obvious choice. The machine will be used for SDTV from a Sky box, DVD
playback using xine and MythMusic.

The system also contains a Nvidia 6200, but could also be fitted potentially
with a 6600GT with component/svideo out (bit of a waste?).

The TV playback looks great, but the DVD playback not so. The main processor
is an Athlon XP 2400+ (2Ghz) so could stand to do some work. Is there any
way that I can involve the CPU in some extra processing to make the DVD
playback's motion compensation work better?

I imagine I would get better DVD results with the Nvidia card, but I just
cannot imagine that it could come close to the quality of the PVR's tv out.

Any thoughts on which card to use (for SDTV, music and DVDs (in that
order))? I only have a limited amount of time to complete the installation
there so I really need to have this down by Friday.

I would be happiest if there was a way to improve the DVD playback using the
PVR's output.

xine command: xine -r auto -f dvd:%d

Also, I have seen people recommend mplayer over xine for DVD playback. Menus
are relatively important hence xine.

If nothing can be done, then the TV and music side are most important and
the DVD playback is adequate so not necessarily a big issue. I thought it
would be nice for my brother to be able to play DVDs of unusual regions
using the system, but wouldn't want to compromise the TV playback quality
just for DVD playback by using the Nvidia card.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Gmail is playing up. Hopefully this message will appear only once.
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