Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (
More info?)
Before I forget, you might want to check out the HTPC forum at
<http://www.avsforum.com>. There's a tremendous amount of expertise about
building home theater machines there--any HTPC hardware you can think of
that has been on the market for any length of time has had some first-hand
discussion there.
Bill Kraski wrote:
> J. Clarke wrote:
>
>> If you want TV under Linux then pick a board off of the MythTV
>> compatibility list or one that you know uses the same chip and a
>> compatible tuner.
>
> Checked that out. MythTV doesn't like any of the AIW cards.
Bingo. If you're going to run Linux then an AIW is not a good choice.
>> ATI uses two approaches to their analog TV boards.
>>
>> One is to use a commodity chip from Phillips or Conexant or Brooktree
>> (now owned by Conexant)--this is the approach used in all TV Wonders
>> except the
>> Elite. Those boards have anywhere from so-so to very decent picture
>> quality, and if you know how to set it up they'll work under just about
>> any OS and with just about any application that has TV support.
>
> I checked gatos.sourceforge.net & again no AIW support.
There's support for very old AIWs. But Gatos is a broken driver--it doesn't
support the current Linux video standards properly, so it is not really
useful. I got very frustrated with it before I found that out.
> But a little more
> research on the Xandros forums indicates the Philips tuner that's in the
> Wonder Pro is workable. And further research (via Google) indicates that
> the HDTV Wonder uses an equivalent to that same Philips tuner. So, I
> might try that one.
It may work for analog, you won't get HD out of it under Linux, and under
analog it won't work any better than the many cheaper analog boards.
In an HD board IMO you'd do better to either go for a pcHDTV or an
Air2PC--both will work under both Windows and Linux--the pcHDTV doesn't
officially support Windows (that's right, Windows--it's aimed at the Linux
market) but the drivers are included in the box and are reported to work.
There's going to be a bit of a delay on the Air2PC--there's a new revision
of the board that seems to be experiencing some kind of production
delay--midmonth is promised.
>> In each case the quality of the TV display is controlled by the chip that
>> is connected to the TV tuner--an AIW will not make a TV Wonder's output
>> look better even though the AIW's own TV output looks better than the TV
>> Wonder's. Support for the Rage Theater chips under Linux is almost
>> nonexistent--there is some very limited support for the first-generation
>> chips but none for the later ones.
>
> OK. At least for now, I avoid the boards with the Theater x00 chips. I
> was originally thinking of either an AIW or, alternately, a Wonder with a
> separate Radeon video cards, in the event that the SiS 760 onboard
> graphics chipset was the reason live broadcasts look very good, but still
> look a
> little more like a recording. All the Googling I've done gives no
> indication of what graphics quality the SiS video has compared to the
> Radeons or GeForce cards, etc. Or is the "slightly off" look a result of
> the digital recording process & another video card wouldn't make much
> difference? It's sufficiently "close enough for jazz" that I can live
> with it if a better graphics card wouldn't make a difference.
Generally speaking, the video board unless it's really bad makes little
difference in the quality of the TV display. One consideration though is
that nvidia and ATI provide DirectX Video Acceleration, which can reduce
the CPU workload during video decoding--I can't find any information that
says that the SiS760 does or does not--if it doesn't then adding an nvidia
or ATI board may be worthwhile.
> The reason I originally was looking at the AIW cards was that there are
> AGP models that would then leave the PCI slots open for other things, if I
> wanted to add anything else to the box. So, I guess it comes down to the
> TV Wonder or the HDTV Wonder, plus (if it'll make a difference) one of the
> Radeon graphics cards. Any tips on whether to add a Radeon &, if so,
> which one, without breaking the wallet <grin>?
If you're going to spring for a Radeon, anything from 9500 on up should be
fine for TV--beyond that it depends on what else you want to do with the
machine--if you're not a gamer a 9600 should be fine. If you are into
Linux then it's best to stay a generation or so back--ATI tends to be slow
with Linux driver releases, so a 9600 or 9800 would be a good bet. The main
thing you'll get out of it though is DXVA.
>
> Bill K
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)