[mythtv-users] Recording problems with PVR-350 and MythTV 0.24.3

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

    > Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2012 01:19:36 -0400
    > From: "Michael T. Dean" <mtdean at thirdcontact.com>

    > You're likely to get better quality output using an nvidia video card 
    > with CPU decoding than you'd get with PVR-350 decoder output or PVR-350 
    > Xv output.

Why?  Particularly, if you've got interlaced SD content recorded from
a PVR-x50, and you're displaying on an interlaced SD CRT, what makes
you say that an nvidia card will be superior?  Especially since it's
difficult to find modern cards that support (say) S-Video output,
which is typically what an SD CRT accepts, so you might have to do
something unpleasant like use a VGA-to-S-video converter.  [I know you
personally regretted buying a PVR-x50 long long ago, but I'd like to
know if there is some objectively-better result using an nvidia card
instead in this particular case.  I'm talking straight video quality
here, not all the other stuff that Myth might want to overlay when
using its menus.]

[I'm ignoring wss or direct line-21 CC support here, which I suspect
no nvidia card can give you, but the 350's decoder can.]

Yes, I'm guessing that the OP has an SD CRT and not something else,
but if he was actively using the PVR-350's decoder, that seems likely.

    > The biggest problem you'll have, though, is if you still need TV out 
    > (i.e. Composite/S-Video/SCART or whatever) versus a "real" output (VGA, 
    > DVI, HDMI, ...), you may find it hard to come by an nvidia card these 
    > days that supports it.

Yes, precisely.

Though I'll point out that I bought a $25 VGA-to-S-video converter
from monoprice.com a few months ago which was surprisingly good,
considering that such things used to be in the hundreds.  Just the
cables alone that it comes with would cost you more than $25 from
elsewhere.  I wouldn't willingly use it instead of a direct connection
from an S-Video output to an S-Video input (there are always going
to be conversion losses, and this unit is no exception), but it's a
reasonable choice for hooking a laptop up to an SD CRT.  I can look up
the monoprice part number if someone needs it and can't figure it out
from their site.  [It's USB-powered, so you get a VGA cable, an S-Video
cable, a USB cable, a stereo RCA pair cable, and a little converter box
that's about the size of a pack of playing cards.  It'll also do VGA
passthrough, IIRC.  One gotcha---its little DIP switches come preset
for PAL (!) output, and you have to look in the little booklet and
flip one to get NTSC.]