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While it's still on topic, a quick run-down of the Hauppage cards for
those unfamiliar with them:<br>
<br>
PVR-150 : a basic framegrabber. Requires more CPU cycles to do the
MPEG encoding work. Works fine if you have CPU bandwidth to spare.<br>
PVR-250 : hardware MPEG encoder. Doesn't require much CPU while
recording. (However, it takes *more* CPU time to transcode if you
don't happen to like their choice of encoding format!)<br>
PVR-350 : hardware MPEG encoder *and* hardware MPEG decoder.
Doesn't require much CPU time to record OR play back. Playback can be
through the TV-OUT port on the PVR-350. Linux supports using the
PVR-350 as a display device for X, but only as an unaccelerated
framebuffer. In other words, it's really good for playing back MPEG
video (in the same format as it recorded it in the first place) but
really, really, REALLY bad for doing anything else like playing XMAME
games or really, anything other than MPEG playback. On the other hand,
the TV-out generates "perfect" resolution for your TV set, and you can
theoretically run a MythTV box without a VGA card at all...<br>
<br>
The key point I wanted to make, is that although conventional wisdom
says the PVR-150 requires the most CPU horsepower, that's not always
the case. With the PVR-150 you can control what encoding format gets
used - and you only have to encode once. With a PVR-250, if Hauppage's
MPEG4 flavor isn't to your liking, the CPU has to *decode* and then
*re-encode* the video in realtime - actually taking more CPU time than
if you didn't have the hardware acceleration in the first place.<br>
<br>
The other point is that with the PVR-350, you'll get (reportedly)
fantastic output quality but that for doing anything OTHER than
watching MPEG4 playback, the performance will actually suck - and take
lots of CPU time.<br>
<br>
-Adam Thompson<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Sean A. Walberg wrote:
<blockquote cite="midPine.LNX.4.58.0510191113460.2229@sergeant.ertw.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">I was at Staples in Portage Place yesterday, they have the 250 for the
same deal.
People looking for the 350 -- it came down in price on Sep 1. We ordered
a few direct from Hauppauge, it ended up being $215 each after shipping
and taxes.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.1click2computers.com/searches/results.asp?product_search=pvr-350&x=0&y=0">http://www.1click2computers.com/searches/results.asp?product_search=pvr-350&x=0&y=0</a>
has it for $180.60 Canadian.
Sean
On Wed, 19 Oct 2005, Theodore Baschak wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">If you're interesting in setting up mythtv, the pvr 150 is on sale for $99
at futureshop this week ($50 instant savings, *NOT* mail in rebate for
once)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10057681&catid=10524&logon=&langid=EN">http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10057681&catid=10524&logon=&langid=EN</a>
I've got this card working with mythtv on fedora core 4, following this
guide.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php">http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php</a>
Theodore Baschak
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