[mdlug] Building a Linux PVR

[Ron Blanchett]

On 11/24/06, Ron Blanchett <rrcb21 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> You should be ok with only a pcHDTV card mine works fine but YMMV.
> the Geforce 7600GS doesn't have an "integrated HDTV encoder" it has
> "High-definition H.264, MPEG2 and WMV9 decode acceleration"
> which is not the same as having an encoder or a decoder.


----- Original Message ----
From: Wolfger <wolfger at gmail.com>

Not to call you a liar or anything, but I copied and pasted
"integrated HDTV encoder" right off the product page. Are you saying
that this is false advertising?
http://new.pny.com/7600-GS-512MB-AGP--P1897C14.aspx





Not to call PNY a lier but I pulled my text right from NVidia's page on the 7600GS.
PNY's marketing department may have overstated the capabilities of the card or 
PNY deviated from the reference specs provided by NVidia. The later my be the 
truer of the two. Also PNY states that the aforementioned "integrated HDTV encoder" 
"
Provides analog TV-output (Component/Composite/S-Video) up to 1080i resolution."
After a brief search on the web the only interface of the three listed that is capable of 
providing HDTV output is the Component Video output, but it is an analog output.
HDTV is a digital medium so even over the Component output you are going to
have degraded video. I don't even see why this card would have such outputs since
the DVI port on the card should be a digital port and would provide a much better interface
for displaying HDTV.

I would suggest not buying that card just for its "integrated HDTV encoder". If you are
going to do HD do it with an HD tuner card like the pcHDTV card or one just like it.
They provide a native interface to HDTV and you would not need the "integrated HDTV encoder"
on this PNY card. And the pcHDTV card coupled with the NVidia's "High-definition H.264, MPEG2 and WMV9 decode acceleration" you will be fine. Heck currently all HDTV is broadcast in MPEG2, but a shift to MPEG-4 for HDTV broadcasts is in the pipe for some point in the future. 

-Ron
 
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