[mythtv-users] Does it matter which Hauppauge tv-card i buy???

[jdonohue654-mythtv at yahoo.com]

--- Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:

> Brad DerManouelian wrote:
> > On Sep 13, 2007, at 8:32 PM, Bill Omer wrote:
> > 
> >>> Stay away from 350
> >> Why?  Doesn't the 350 have the same chip set as
> the 150, but contains
> >> superior tv out for sd?
> > 
> > You'll pay extra money for functionality that is
> being phased out.
> 
> I think it's not so much that the 350 output support
> is being "phased
> out" as that it is not being actively worked on, so
> eventually something
> will break the support and it may or may not get
> fixed.
> 
> There are certain situations with certain hardware
> where using the 350's
> output capability might be a good answer, but I
> think those situations
> are getting rarer and rarer.
> 
> As for "superior" SD output I'm not sure. It
> certainly does a good job
> of MPEG2 decoding, but you lose the ability to use
> the openGL painter,
> so the overall user experience might not be
> perceived as "superior".
> Certainly anything from a 5200 on up provides very
> acceptable
> performance, known compatibility, and an upgrade
> path to HD should you
> need it.
> 
> Unless you have a specialized front end that for
> some reason can't do
> more standard output graphics, are certain you'll
> never need HD, and are
> capable of some work to fix problems that might
> develop with 350 support
>  (or are willing to risk breakage down the road) I'd
> stay away.
> 
> beww
> _______________________________________________


My experience has been quite different ... 350 xv
output is far superior to anything I've managed to get
with my 5200. I understand that the TV out
functionality for the 350 is no longer actively
developed, but if I understand correctly xv output on
the 350  doesn't rely on anything special in mythtv.
Granted, the 350 can't use opengl, but I can't imagine
that would matter since the output is already nearly
indistinguishable from live tv.