[mdlug] Building a Linux PVR

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Dan Pritts

> However, true 1080-line displays do exist.   

 And cost $thousands, in general. :->

> Conventional wisdom is that for slow-moving content (eg, movies),
> the additional pixels provided by 1080i makes things look better.
> For fast-moving content like sports, the higher frame rate is better.

 For xmas I got an HD tuner for my 1366x768 display. (It doesn't have a
built-in HD tuner; we bought it about a year and half back.) I have the tuner
set to output a 720p signal to my TV. Right now I only get the broadcast
channels: 2, 4, 7, 56, and 62. WTVS (56) is HD all the time (1080i), the
others are only HD for select shows.

 Some networks do 720p, some do 1080i. Since my TV is only capable of 720p,
I don't benefit from the extra lines in 1080i. I generally just notice that
motion looks better on the 720p-native broadcasts.

 Another limitation is that, right now, until I can get an HDMI cable and an
HDMI-to-DVI converter, I'm using the component inputs (YBR) to get the signal.
(I was going to use a DVI-to-HDMI converter, and a DVI cable, but the converter
blocked the antenna input when plugged into the tuner. :-/ ) Once I have an
all-digital connection to the TV, I'll see if the tuner's scaler or the TV's
scaler does a better job adjusting 1080i content to the screen's size.

 (Say, anyone know where I can get a cheap HDMI cable and a cheap
HDMI-female-to-DVI-male converter?)

 It's not life-changing. But the shows do look a bit better. I didn't really
*need* the tuner, but it was relatively inexpensive, and if I'm going to be
folding laundry at night with my wife and watching ER, I might as well do it
in High-Def. :->

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                               (313) 227-2317

 "Sure, it's easy to achieve partial obfuscation through pure stupidity,
  but for complete, systematic retardation, you need hard working great
              thinkers that put their best effort into it."
                   - Fredrik Johansson, on Windows NT
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