[mythtv-users] PCI, S-Video, VDPAU, SDTV, interlaced CRT: what card?

[f-myth-users at media.mit.edu]

I've got a 36" Sony CRT SDTV.  Interlaced.  Composite, S-Video,
and component inputs -only-:  no VGA, no HDMI, no DVI, none o' that.
Its S-Video is of the 4-pin style, not the 9-pin style.

I've got a PVR-350 that obviously won't be supported for long.
Especially since I'd like to transcode my SDTV to H.264 (to save 2-3x
in space, I hope, in a very large corpus) and play it back using VDPAU
instead.

The frontend I'd like to put it in has PCI and AGP.  No PCI-X,
PCIe/PCI Express, or any o' that, either.  (And get off my lawn!)

Even though this is -already- an interlaced TV and the original
(pre-H.264 content) is interlaced SDTV from PVR-250 capture, I have
been given to understand that I -still- want to run a deinterlacer,
so I don't have to worry about out-of-order fields.  I want the best
interlacer possible---I'm very sensitive to video quality, which is
one reason I am absolutely loathe to give up my PVR-350.  Especially
to jerkiness, tearing, and all that.  So I presumably want Advanced 2x.

I would prefer fanless if at all possible.  I assume I need at 512MB
of memory at least (even for SD?).  If I -absolutely- can't find a
card that fits these, maybe I can put a PCI Express card ([3], and see
below) in a different machine, but that machine was slated to run my
devo system, not the production system, making it much harder to do
any development.

What card can I get?  I know this has been discussed to death,
but I'm having a really hard time satisfying these constraints.
(There was a thread in October that -instantly- got sidetracked
by the word "PCI" and never recovered, for instance.)

Reviews like [1] (which claims "S-Video won't work with Linux")
worry me.  (Apparently it's a 4 vs 9-pin issue and Sparkle claims
no support for S-Video outside of Windows.)  But that's the -only-
card (at least at NewEgg) which actually matches all my criteria.
After that, I need to go to fans, I think, unless I've missed something.
([1] is the SFPC84GS512U2LP, which [2] claims works fine, but that
user was using VGA, not S-Video.)

Does anyone have any known-to-be-good suggestions?  I've looked at
[2] of course.  I've also just been burned by buying [3] and failing
to notice the "Express" after PCI, since I thought I'd already limited
myself to PCI-only but apparently that was a different browser session
or PCI Express counted as PCI in my search terms---unlikely but I
found & got them to fix a similar bug once in NewEgg's filters before.
(So that one's going back, if NewEgg doesn't also insist on a restocking
fee, which for that card they reserve the right to do.  Feh.  Or unless
it turns out the consensus is that it's my best option anyway if I give
up PCI.  Opinions?)

([4] has few positive reviews, and a fan.  [5] is -very- expensive
[dual screen] and has a loud fan.  Maybe [6]?  No comments in the
reviews re Linux & S-Video.  Also expensive.  At least it's fanless,
although the first review claimed worked only three months, and several
reviews of other Sparkle cards claimed they only worked for a few
months and died (overheating from being fanless?  Dunno.)  And with
these options, I think I've scraped the bottom of the barrel, even
with fans, unless I go for PCI Express.  Am I missing something?)

...and I can't easily tell -which- cards have "4-pin" S-Video 'cause
all the -connectors- appear to be 9-pin---though the one I just got
[3] has a 9-pin connector and a (short!) 4-pin cable.  I assume some
are VIVO.  Don't know if that's a screw case under Linux.  Monoprice
has exactly one (rather specialized) result for the term "vivo", so
I dunno if adaptors are even likely.

Help?  Tnx.

[1] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187042
[2] http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU
[3] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187034
[4] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134073
[5] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139038
[6] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187058