First steps - looking for requirements and advice

[durian]

Well, no, I don't need hardware decoding as such. It just seemed like a good idea.

Is there a list of supported TV-Out cards? (I've looked! Honest!) The system will not have a monitor (or keyboard. or mouse. and I'm only grudgingly giving it power), so everything needs to go to the TV from the moment it starts.

Thanks again!

I have a PVR-350 and a 6600GT video card with TV-Out - for some reason the PVR-350's output is much better than the videocard's TV out.

Does anyone know if the video out on a video card is generally less in quality?

-peter

[stefan]

Does anyone know if the video out on a video card is generally less in quality?

Unfortunately, yes. I wish I could get the tv-out on the pvr-350 to work properly, because the image quality is so much better than with my (crappy) graphics card. But I have long since given up on that. Learned to live with the less good quality with my S3.

[betlit]

Does anyone know if the video out on a video card is generally less in quality?

i never have seen a tv out delivering better quality, than the one of the pvr-350. so i state the assumption, that there is not a single graphics card on this planet being fit enough to hold a candle to the tv out of the 350.

[stefan]

i never have seen a tv out delivering better quality, than the one of the pvr-350. so i state the assumption, that there is not a single graphics card on this planet being fit enough to hold a candle to the tv out of the 350.

Which is weird, in my opinion. What is so hard about that? =) Any graphics card makers out there to answer that? =)

[djtaylor]

Noise is another reason why many people use an MVP instead, with the pc located elsewhere in the house. However, they do make it difficult/impossible to watch dvd's and divx files.

Experiences vary. We happily watch divx files on MVP's and I'll either use a DVD player (cheap/functional/no effort) or watched DVD's that I've ripped.

David.

[betlit]

yeah, this is something i completely cannot understand...

i mean... even if i turned the resolution(?) down to 640x480 (assuming no downscaling has to be done) the ouput of my geforce fx 5600 ultra was by far worse compared to the 350.

[folkboat]

Not meant to be FLAME against the PVR-150 !!
Started out with leadteck TV2000 Expert GBPVR (no harware encoding) - not good!!
Bought a PVR-150 (hardware encoding) GBPVR - picture quality FAIR!! "oversaturated whites/fuzzy picture.

I can't imagine that all PVR-150'S have these problems, I chose it because of "MANY" positive reviews and MUCH research. Others have had tremendous success with the PVR-150 - I have not. Thus I am looking towards the ATI Theatre 550 based board, not much info available however the research continues.

[gEd]

i never have seen a tv out delivering better quality, than the one of the pvr-350. so i state the assumption, that there is not a single graphics card on this planet being fit enough to hold a candle to the tv out of the 350.

it's so frustrating, all that uber image quality but virtually unusable for so many of us.

Mind, I would hope that a DVI graphics card should produce a better image on a plasma/lcd screen than the 350? So that's the answer then, a new screen!

I must tell the wife about the £8000 60" HDTV plasma I saw in a store last week......

[sub]

My interest in the PVR350 stopped when I got a plasma tv last year, and started connecting via DVI

My wife worked at Fujitsu, so we got a good deal.

[sub]

I do think the PVR350 had great picture quality, but about half the people that had one of these device would find it would lock their machine hard. There was nothing I could do about this, even though I tried for a very long time. With these sorts of problems, it just wasnt worth recommending this device to users, or providing on going support for it.

My PVR350 has now been relegated to a dusty shelf. Rest in peace old friend...