[mythtv-users] TiVo Convert Experience - HDTV Video Card Recommendation

[Brian L. Walter]

Jim Shank wrote:
> A little over a month ago, in an effort to move away from my DirecTiVo I
> decided to give MythTV a try. I recently upgraded my main PC and decided to
> allocate my old development box to this project. It consists of:
> ASUS K8V SE Deluxe motherboard
> AMD Athlon 64 3200+
> 2GB RAM
> ATI X850PRO (AGP)
> 500GB SATA HD
>
> After fighting with Debian for a while, I decided to start over with Fedora
> Core 6 based on my previous experience with RedHat distro and got Myth .20
> up and running based on using Jarod Wilson's fantastic guide. My first
> dedicated purchase to this system was a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE to add
> some capture and remote capabilities. I picked up a cheap Radio Shack
> antenna so I could start to get a feel for how MythTV compared to my
> long-standing affair with TiVo. I was immediately impressed with the overall
> flexibility of the system while it was in my "lab" and decided to move it to
> the living room for a test run with the real critic (read Wife). I am sure
> quite a few of you have better-halves that require technology to "just-work"
> and mine is no exception. She has been in love with the TiVo since I won a
> unit in a TiVo essay contest when she was pregnant almost 7 years ago. 
>
> The main thing I have been showing her is the MythTV's ability to store our
> series DVD's on the hard drive and she can pull them up anytime she wants.
> This was a big hit but she immediately pointed out that it wouldn't resume
> like the old DVD player did. I know this is a feature of the Internal player
> but I can't get it to handle aspect ratio correctly yet so I am still using
> xine which appears to have no resume capabilities at all but handles the
> aspect nicely. 
>
> A few days ago she suggested that it is time to retire our 13-year old TV in
> favor of an LCD HDTV. I was floored and elated at the request and
> immediately started research. This of course puts an acceleration on my
> MythTV project which I was originally taking very slowly but want to take
> full advantage of 1080p on the new TV which leads me to asking for a
> recommendation for a video card that will properly drive the new display.
>
> I can't begin to explain the suffering I went through in order to get the
> ATI card to work at 640x480 via S-Video on my existing TV and still have
> bowed edges to the picture. I have spent the last 5-hours Googling MythTV HD
> and have determined that an nVidia card is the way to go. The FX5200 seems
> to be the de-facto standard but there are some complaints about not being
> able to keep up with 1080i/p. The 6200 is rumored to handle the resolution
> better but appears to have problems with video-overlay namely the lack of
> OSD colors. It also seems that anything above that is a waste since this is
> a 2D application and the system won't be used for anything beyond that. I
> would appreciate a recommendation please.
>
> I am also replacing the Dual-Tuner DirecTiVo which has worked extremely
> well. It really takes tweaking the heck out of MythTV to really appreciate
> the "polished" look and feel of the TiVo interface. I am likely going to buy
> the HDHomeRun to secure local OTA HD programming which covers the basics;
> NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX. I will also need to downgrade my DirecTiVo receiver
> to a regular one and would love to get a recommendation there as well for
> which unit to buy off of eBay. Depending on the overlap between the local DT
> broadcasts and DirecTV, I might be able to get away with only a single unit
> connected to my PVR-150 and not miss any shows.
>
> Summarizing the actual questions in my long-winded post:
> 1. How can I correct the DVD playback aspect ratio in the Internal player
> (tried the menus but nothing changed)?
> 2. Recommendation for a video card that will work well with MythTV and can
> handle 1080p through a DVI connection.
> 3. Recommendation for a DirecTV receiver (cheap) that works extremely well
> with MythTV (serial control). Are there any with 1394 video connections?
> 4. Any complaints about HDHomeRun or is that a solid investment?
>
> Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing some feedback.
>   
I'm kinda in the same boat.  We have 3 DirecTivos, and a Myth setup in 
the bedroom.  Right now, I'd advise against giving up the DirecTivos for 
now, as Myth has some recording stability issues.

We basically mirror the season passes on the Tivos upstairs, and, 
especially for HD, when they are recorded with too many artifacts to 
watch, we fall back to watching them in the sunroom.

I'm using 2 HDHR's for HD.  I agree that the setup is easy and straight 
forward..  The only issue is watching which version of the RPM's you 
use, as mythtv-setup would not channel scan on occasion.  This issue 
would come and go, based on the date of the RPM's.

But if you get a stable system, it is wonder to behold.  Wife still 
gives a little giggle when the commercial skip works :)

Brian