I need advice about hardware :) Tv tuner, Video card,etc..

[Coume - Lubox.com]

Hello,

My ATI all-in-wonder (2years old model) died one week ago... R.I.P.
But this decided to build a new computer from scratch, brand new and the
most important only running linux...
As this computer is aimed at being a "multimedia box", in fact it's in
my room and it is my Tv (linked to my VHS player), DVD player, music
player, etc..
I need to find hardware that are totally compatible with linux, and
that's the more difficult thing to me :(

The most important one is the TV-tuner and the Video card...

Is one of you actually using a TV-tuner under linux? Which one would you
advice me??
- good quality of tuner
- The perfect thing would be with integrated MPEG2 encoding/decoding
- with a TV-out and TV-in
- a remote (integrated or an added one if it can work under linux)

Any advice and experiences with your TV-tuner and video cards, the one
to avoid or the one to buy! Feel free to let me know :)

Thxs in advance
Ludo
________________________________________________________________
http://www.lubox.com - http://forum.lubox.com
Email Services, How-To (Linux,PHP,...), Freeware...
Come have a look, and you can even drop a msg on the forum!

[Pedro Fernandes Macedo]

On Mon, 2004-03-01 at 13:52, Coume - Lubox.com wrote:
> Is one of you actually using a TV-tuner under linux? Which one would you
> advice me??
> good quality of tuner
> The perfect thing would be with integrated MPEG2 encoding/decoding
> with a TV-out and TV-in
> a remote (integrated or an added one if it can work under linux)

I have a prolink play tv pro card (which uses the bttv module)... It has
a good tv tuning (but I recommend using an external antenna or a cable,
because in my box the image is not very good , because of interference
caused by my computer). The capture is good , but in linux it didnt work
very well @640x480.. The resulting file had too many dropped frames ,
while the same capture at the same resolution when made using windows
had only 3 dropped frames.. (and I stopped all services and was using
window maker , just to make sure that my CPU was almost 100% available
to the capture process). 
I dont remmember now if this card has tv-out , but almost any video card
has this feature these days ( specially ATI and Nvidia based cards).

--
Pedro Macedo

[Pedro Fernandes Macedo]

On Mon, 2004-03-01 at 14:00, Pedro Fernandes Macedo wrote:
> I have a prolink play tv pro card (which uses the bttv module)...

Btw , I forgot to say that this model has also a remote control. I didnt
try it yet...

--
Pedro Macedo

[Adam Voigt]

I highly recommend the Happauge (not sure if that's spelled right)
PV-250, it's got on-board encoding, and very good support.

On Mon, 2004-03-01 at 11:52, Coume - Lubox.com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> My ATI all-in-wonder (2years old model) died one week ago... R.I.P.
> But this decided to build a new computer from scratch, brand new and the
> most important only running linux...
> As this computer is aimed at being a "multimedia box", in fact it's in
> my room and it is my Tv (linked to my VHS player), DVD player, music
> player, etc..
> I need to find hardware that are totally compatible with linux, and
> that's the more difficult thing to me :(
>
> The most important one is the TV-tuner and the Video card...
>
> Is one of you actually using a TV-tuner under linux? Which one would you
> advice me??
> good quality of tuner
> The perfect thing would be with integrated MPEG2 encoding/decoding
> with a TV-out and TV-in
> a remote (integrated or an added one if it can work under linux)
>
> Any advice and experiences with your TV-tuner and video cards, the one
> to avoid or the one to buy! Feel free to let me know :)
>
> Thxs in advance
> Ludo
> ________________________________________________________________
> http://www.lubox.com - http://forum.lubox.com
> Email Services, How-To (Linux,PHP,...), Freeware...
> Come have a look, and you can even drop a msg on the forum!

[Alexandre Strube]

Em Seg, 2004-03-01 às 14:04, Adam Voigt escreveu:
> I highly recommend the Happauge (not sure if that's spelled right)
> PV-250, it's got on-board encoding, and very good support.

several people reports problems with this one on video4linux list. I
used bttv's based boards without any glitch, but the quality is not THAT
good...

[Adam Voigt]

Weird, cause a bunch of people reported stellar performance using Freevo
and MythTV, plus me. =)

On Tue, 2004-03-02 at 09:04, Alexandre Strube wrote:
> Em Seg, 2004-03-01 às 14:04, Adam Voigt escreveu:
> > I highly recommend the Happauge (not sure if that's spelled right)
> > PV-250, it's got on-board encoding, and very good support.
>
> several people reports problems with this one on video4linux list. I
> used bttv's based boards without any glitch, but the quality is not THAT
> good...
>
> -- 
> []s
>
> Alexandre Ganso 
> 500 FOUR vermelha - Diretor Steel Goose Moto Group

[Will Clifton]

On Tue, 2004-03-02 at 08:04, Alexandre Strube wrote:
> Em Seg, 2004-03-01 às 14:04, Adam Voigt escreveu:
> > I highly recommend the Happauge (not sure if that's spelled right)
> > PV-250, it's got on-board encoding, and very good support.
>
> several people reports problems with this one on video4linux list. I
> used bttv's based boards without any glitch, but the quality is not THAT
> good...

Wow, I'm usually the one ASKING the questions. I have the Hauppage
PVR-250 working perfectly, but it is specifically for the MythTV setup
(www.mythtv.org) with lots of advice from this excellent site -
http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/. I had a lot of problems getting it running,
but once I did the quality is outstanding, TV captures are flawless and
capturing to full DVD spec (VBR up to 9000) requires very little in the
way of resources due to the onboard MPEG-2 encoder. I'm using a Radeon
7500 for TV out and it's working great. The ivtv driver required for
this card is not the easiest thing to get working, but with some
patience and a lot of research it works great with MythTV. BTW, it
includes a remote and there's also various resources on the web that
will tell you how to map this card for various different styles of
universal remotes.

I have had no success getting this card to work with any other TV
viewing/capturing programs available for linux because it is not a bttv
chip, but a cx88 chip. Depending on how you wish to configure your setup
this may be the card for you or not. If you check out the "wilsonet"
link above you'll see that he has a lot of information about the PVR-350
as well, which does have an S-Video TV out.

Just some personal experience.

Will Clifton

[Youssef Makki]

Regarding the Video card, I have a built by ATI Radeon 9600 pro which is
working like a charm (check http://fedoranews.org/contributors/ for a
faq I wrote about getting TV out working). I'd highly recommend this
card for it's high performance and very nice price. The XT in my opinion
isn't worth the extra money, but that's just me. For the TV tuner, be
careful what you chose. I went out and bought an ATI TV wonder Pro
remote control edition, turns out the new Pro tuners use a newer chip
which isn't supported well yet (http://bytesex.org/cx88/). I am however
working on getting the RF remote working (will post a faq), that should
be very useful for a multimedia box.
I'd Stick to older tuners using the bt848 and bt878 chips which are
cheaper and very well supported via the bttv driver (like the regular
ATI tv wonder). I wouldn't know much about Hauppage and others.

Hope that helps!

On Mon, 2004-03-01 at 11:52, Coume - Lubox.com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> My ATI all-in-wonder (2years old model) died one week ago... R.I.P.
> But this decided to build a new computer from scratch, brand new and the
> most important only running linux...
> As this computer is aimed at being a "multimedia box", in fact it's in
> my room and it is my Tv (linked to my VHS player), DVD player, music
> player, etc..
> I need to find hardware that are totally compatible with linux, and
> that's the more difficult thing to me :(
>
> The most important one is the TV-tuner and the Video card...
>
> Is one of you actually using a TV-tuner under linux? Which one would you
> advice me??
> good quality of tuner
> The perfect thing would be with integrated MPEG2 encoding/decoding
> with a TV-out and TV-in
> a remote (integrated or an added one if it can work under linux)
>
> Any advice and experiences with your TV-tuner and video cards, the one
> to avoid or the one to buy! Feel free to let me know :)
>
> Thxs in advance
> Ludo
> ________________________________________________________________
> http://www.lubox.com - http://forum.lubox.com
> Email Services, How-To (Linux,PHP,...), Freeware...
> Come have a look, and you can even drop a msg on the forum!

[Robin Laing]

Youssef Makki wrote:
> Regarding the Video card, I have a built by ATI Radeon 9600 pro which is
> working like a charm (check http://fedoranews.org/contributors/ for a
> faq I wrote about getting TV out working). I'd highly recommend this
> card for it's high performance and very nice price. The XT in my opinion
> isn't worth the extra money, but that's just me. For the TV tuner, be
> careful what you chose. I went out and bought an ATI TV wonder Pro
> remote control edition, turns out the new Pro tuners use a newer chip
> which isn't supported well yet (http://bytesex.org/cx88/). I am however
> working on getting the RF remote working (will post a faq), that should
> be very useful for a multimedia box.
> I'd Stick to older tuners using the bt848 and bt878 chips which are
> cheaper and very well supported via the bttv driver (like the regular
> ATI tv wonder). I wouldn't know much about Hauppage and others.
>
> Hope that helps!
>
> On Mon, 2004-03-01 at 11:52, Coume - Lubox.com wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > My ATI all-in-wonder (2years old model) died one week ago... R.I.P.
> > But this decided to build a new computer from scratch, brand new and the
> > most important only running linux...
> > As this computer is aimed at being a "multimedia box", in fact it's in
> > my room and it is my Tv (linked to my VHS player), DVD player, music
> > player, etc..
> > I need to find hardware that are totally compatible with linux, and
> > that's the more difficult thing to me :(
> >
> > The most important one is the TV-tuner and the Video card...
> >
> > Is one of you actually using a TV-tuner under linux? Which one would you
> > advice me??
> > good quality of tuner
> > The perfect thing would be with integrated MPEG2 encoding/decoding
> > with a TV-out and TV-in
> > a remote (integrated or an added one if it can work under linux)
> >
> > Any advice and experiences with your TV-tuner and video cards, the one
> > to avoid or the one to buy! Feel free to let me know :)
> >
> > Thxs in advance
> > Ludo

Did you get 3d working properly with your ATI 9600.  I gave up on the 
ATI and purchased a NVidia.

[Adam Voigt]

I don't personally have it running, but a friend of mine has an ATI 9800
Pro, that works fine.

On Mon, 2004-03-01 at 13:59, Robin Laing wrote:
> Did you get 3d working properly with your ATI 9600.  I gave up on the 
> ATI and purchased a NVidia.
>
> -- 
> Robin Laing
> Instrumentation Technologist   Voice: 1.403.544.4762
> Military Engineering Section   FAX:   [phone]
> Defence R&D Canada - Suffield  Email: [e-mail]
> PO Box 4000, Station Main      WWW:http://www.suffield.drdc-rddc.gc.ca
> Medicine Hat, AB, T1A 8K6
> Canada

[Robin Laing]

Adam Voigt wrote:
> I don't personally have it running, but a friend of mine has an ATI 9800
> Pro, that works fine.
>
> On Mon, 2004-03-01 at 13:59, Robin Laing wrote:
> > Did you get 3d working properly with your ATI 9600.  I gave up on the 
> > ATI and purchased a NVidia.
> >
> > -- 
> > Robin Laing

As the question was in regards to a new system.  I wanted to make sure 
that 3D was clarified.  For this reason I would not recommend the ATI 
card.  This was the reason that I dumped my ATI.

Now I know why people like Tux Racer, my daughter loves it. :)

ATI acutally states on their site (as of January) that their drivers 
don't do 3D on the 9600.  For many games, 3D will be required and for 
a new machine, it may be wanted.