
joevph at yahoo
Mar 23, 2006, 2:00 PM
Post #25 of 35
(5322 views)
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Re: PVR-350 output support being dropped!
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--- Leigh <lsaunderson [at] blueyonder> wrote: > I've been using my 350 since I first built the > mythbox about 1.5 - 2 > years ago now (I think, was on 0.17 at the time I > think) > Granted it's annoying that the non mpeg2 stuff is > sometimes slow (or not > supported), but I always found that the quality > looked better than the > output from my Geforce 5800. I still have the 5800 > in the box and > occasionally switch X's setup back to it if I wannt > play a game or > something (I've got Stepmania installed on the same > machine, great fun > on a TV and using a dancemat !). > I might try the Geforce again this w/end to compare > quality again, but I > for one would like the 350 support to be kept > alive.. > > I assume this is talking about losing 350 output > support, not encoding > as well seeing as that's provided out ivtv ? > > _______________________________________________ > mythtv-users mailing list > mythtv-users [at] mythtv > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users > The only support that is being considered dropped is that of the MPEG-2 (hardware) decoder on the PVR-350. You can still use the actual card itself for TV output by installing the X driver which gives Xv support. The only downsides to this are: 1. It is much more CPU intensive (because Xv is done by the CPU instead of a video card supporting acceleration), and 2. There seem to be some bugs relating to capturing data and playing it back at the same time (which is a seperate discussion). If you want to continue to use your PVR-350, you can with newer versions of MythTV, you just might have to use the X driver and not the MPEG-2 decoder, that's all. Now then, if there is somebody (or multiple people) who use the PVR-350 hardware decoder, and who wish to support the code for it in MythTV, then there is no problem. The decoder chip was designed for only a certain feature set, and I am quite impressed that the developers have gotten as far as they have with it. The code in (at least) a few places has PVR-350 specific sections (for the MPEG-2 decoder/framebuffer), and keeping that the same (in terms of features) adds a big strain for only one type of hardware. Myself, I used to use the PVR-350 with the X driver, but have since switched to an HDTV that connects to my GeForce 5200FX through it's VGA port. The picture quality takes a bit of a hit (I have to use Bob deinterlacing, which sometimes has it's own issues), but I am able to do so much more with the 5200FX (OpenGL for the new UI and MythMusic, proper screen size for xmame, etc.). It's just as more of the core users and (more importantly) the developers start moving away from the PVR-350 MPEG-2 decoder, there will be less support for it. -- Joe __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users [at] mythtv http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
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