newbie questions

[reven]

hi i was just wondering some info on some hardware and stuff, just trying to sort out which capture card is for me, can you use the pvr-350 mpeg2 decoder output to output the entire screen, or does it just output mpeg2 files? i have a matrox g200 which could do both, but whenever you played a capture file it would spit it out to the tv even if tv output was off.

also can you change the capture settings to different file formats? what is the standard capture format? is it mpeg2 or raw avi?

im mostly likely going to get the pvr-250 or pvr-350, i also live in nz, and theyre really expensive here so just want to make sure i get the right one.

oh also is there you or are you going to implement a widescreen version? or can that be handled by windows or something? im making a pvr that just hooked straight up to a tv which is widescreen

also just want to say i love the project, a lot easier than all the linux ones, mythtv and freevo those were a nightmare to get working, gave up in the end

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Quote[/b] ]hi i was just wondering some info on some hardware and stuff, just trying to sort out which capture card is for me, can you use the pvr-350 mpeg2 decoder output to output the entire screen, or does it just output mpeg2 files? i have a matrox g200 which could do both, but whenever you played a capture file it would spit it out to the tv even if tv output was off.

You only see MPEG1 or MPEG2 video, and the GB-PVR menus on the PVR350 tv out. It doesn't show any of the desktop or other applications.

Quote[/b] ]also can you change the capture settings to different file formats? what is the standard capture format? is it mpeg2 or raw avi?

It only captures directly to MPEG2, but does it with next to no CPU usage (which is nice).

Its hard to recommend a specific device.

The PVR350 is a little limiting in what it will play (no DVDs, no DivX, no AVIs), and can be a bit picky with the hardware it will work with, but when its working well it produces a very nice picture and uses virtually no CPU.

The PVR250 is a more general card. Uses the same capture components as the PVR350, but lacks the on board decoder. This means you have to use a regular video card for playing back video. This does give you flexibility of playing any format, and seeing your desktop, but software decoding is not quite as nice looking.

[reven]

oh cool, ill probably get the pvr250, and just use a vid card for tv out. do you have any suggestions to a good but affordable gfx card with tv out? ive heard the matrox g400 is good but its hard to find these days, especially in nz

what about the widescreen settings, i mean widescreen menus etc, like with xbmc, is that possible at the moment? or is it going to be implemented later?