[mythtv-users] hardware compatibility lists?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 12/21/2007 02:47 PM, Keith - wrote:
> If anyone has any recommendations for sub-$100 video output cards,
> with output quality and on-card decoding (to take some load off the
> CPU) factoring high, I'd be happy to listen.  I was looking at the
> Geofrce 8500...

You're probably better off with a GeForce 6200 or 5200 (the 5200 has Xv
picture controls, the 6x00 series and higher doesn't, but the 5200 is
next on the chopping block to be relegated to legacy support--meaning
you'd have to use the legacy drivers).  The picture controls allow you
to set brightness, contrast, etc. for video playback separately from the
settings used for the GUI.  I find that when setting them properly for
the video on my card (which doesn't support Xv picture controls), the
GUI looks fine.  I will admit that I'm neither artistic nor a videophile.

With the GeForce 7, 6, or 5 series, you can use XvMC.  With XvMC, you'll
get about the same acceleration regardless of whether you're using a
5200 higher.  The NVIDIA drivers completely dropped support for XvMC for
the 8000 series .  While the 8500 might allow you to do OpenGL output,
IIRC, OpenGL output is currently more CPU-intensive than Xv output
(which is the non-GPU-assisted output mode that's used as the basis for
GPU-assisted XvMC).  So, OpenGL would take more CPU than Xv, which would
take more than XvMC.

Others who have actually used the OpenGL output in SVN trunk (which will
be available in 0.21 when released) will have to answer any questions
about it (or correct any incorrect info I may have given).

Oh, and BTW, I am a firm believer that the right approach is to get a
CPU with sufficient power to decode the video in real time.  For
standard-definition TV, any relatively modern CPU is overkill.  For
high-definition, though, you'll want a pretty good CPU.

Mike