[mythtv-users] nVidia FX5200 - reccomendations please

[Guillaume Membré]

After reading all your post, I still unsure of what to do : does it
worth switching from a pvr350 to a nvidia just for watching SD ? My TV
can be connected just through svideo, not VGA nor DVI.
I know that the pvr350 won't do opengl but this is not my priority.

Thanks
Guillaume

On 5/1/06, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
>
> On May 1, 2006, at 9:43 AM, James Kaufman wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 03:10:12AM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
> >>
> >> On Apr 20, 2006, at 3:03 AM, mythtv-users at spam.dragonhold.org wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 02:41:08AM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
> >>>> I have tried cards from a 5200 to a 6800 and have not noticed any
> >>>> difference, with the VGA output feeding a 32" LCD, and I don't use
> >>>> XvMC.
> >>> There is a world of difference between the VGA output and the TV
> >>> output.  Friends of mine
> >>> using a PC under a 36" widescreen TV ended up ditching their nVidia
> >>> card and going back to a
> >>> Matrox one because the TV out of the nVidia card was so bad.
> >>>
> >>> Admittedly that was about 5 years ago, so I'd hope things have
> >>> improved a lot - but it's
> >>> something to be aware of.
> >>>
> >>> I'm certainly waiting until we get our new HDTV (delivered this
> >>> evening *YAY*) before I go
> >>> back to using my mythTV box, simply because the quality of the PAL
> >>> output is too bad for the
> >>> menus... It's fine for watching programs, but the menus have
> >>> flickering edges to all the
> >>> sharp lines.
> >>>
> >>
> >> No argument here. I was using the S-Video output and it was so
> >> (relatively) crappy I changed my entire living room furniture
> >> arrangement so I could connect using VGA. Haven't tried DVI yet as my
> >> satellite receiver direct output is using that for HD, my Myth system
> >> is strictly SD at this time.
> >>
> >> I had assumed that video cards all had pretty much the same quality
> >> NTSC/PAL outputs, because it seems like an afterthought to the card
> >> makers. If some card on the market has markedly better TV output by
> >> all means it should be used if you're going that route, and the fact
> >> should be made well-known to the Myth community.
> >
> > What is '(relatively) crappy'? I've noticed on my old Analog 27" NTSC
> > TV that the TV out from my FX-5200 is darker than live TV is. LIve TV
> > looks brighter, more vibrant. The FX-5200 looks washed-out and dingy.
> > (And yes, I did try tweaking MythTV's controls to adjust brightness,
> > contrast, etc.)
> >
>
> The "(relative) crappiness" was mostly in resolution, not in the
> "1024x768" sort of sense but in the "sharpness" of the image. Using
> the VGA output/input I could read the text in a console window or web
> browser screen. It was not as noticeable playing video full-screen,
> because SD video doesn't have that much detail to start with.
>
> "Dark" and "washed out and dingy" are typical descriptions of low
> video levels. I would think that Myth's adjustments would not be the
> place to correct such a problem, it would be better dealt with using
> the video driver's controls. If you're using the "proprietary binary
> blob" then "nvidia-settings" gives you controls that would have far
> more effect than Myth's settings.
>
> Using nvidia-settings I was able to get a composite output signal
> that looked pretty much like an internal tuner image on my set,
> except for the slight artifacts that accompany any mpeg-compressed
> analog video (the very slight "nylon stocking" effect, not the motion
> artifacts).
>
> Most people overdrive both the video and the chroma levels on their
> home TVs, and "consumers" are sometimes dis-satisfied with a truly
> properly set up monitor, just because they are used to over-saturated
> colors and smashed blacks and whites, I learned a long time ago not
> to "correct" these problems on friends sets, they often want it "the
> way they like it", even when it is very "wrong".
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