Well, my R5A10 has been running well for about a month so I figured its time to upgrade Currently I am using sVideo out to a 32" CRT TV. I just bought a 32" widescreen LCD TV that has a VGA/RGB 15 pin input and I would like to use it in place of my crt TV. My questions are:

1) Will the video quality be better (using VGA as opposed to sVideo)? Significantly better?
2) It uses a 16x9 resolution 1366x768 will that work (or should I say will I have any problems that I need to look out for)?... which reminds me can someone point me to a sample config file? R5A10 did not have sample video config files on the CD.
3) How does KnoppMyth handle the widescreen (when using VGA connector)?
3a) Specifically, I record/watch a lot from the SciFi channel that is broadcast in letterbox format. On my 4:3 TV I get the large black bars on the top and bottom. On the new one will I get those bars as well as bars on the sides, or will the picture fill up the whole (most of it, realizing its 15x9 not 16x9) screen?
3b) What about standard 4:3 television stuff. What will it look like?
Thanks

1) Yes, a lot better. Even better if you get it to do "1:1 pixel display," where you have your video card outputting the display's native resolution.

2) Do you have an Aquos? Mine says its native resolution is 1366x768 but I've never found or managed to create a modeline that works at that resolution. I'm running at 1280x768 and it looks pretty darn good anyway, so I'm not too worried about it.

3) MythTV resizes appropriately to the resolution your card is running at. You may need to adjust your XF86Config-4 file and include a DisplaySize line to let programs know that you have a 16:9 display. I also had to include a "--monitoraspect 16:9" flag to the MythVideo playback setup for mplayer. 0.17 also includes a theme that is 16:9 oriented, but it's pretty bare-bones.

3a) Pressing the "w" key repeatedly will zoom the 4:3 standard definition picture in a variety of ways. Keep pressing until you find one you like depending on if you want to stretch 4:3 programs to fit, or if you want to zoom 4:3 letterboxed programs to fill.

3b) See 3a. If you're a purist about aspect ratios, the default will be fine (namely, 4:3 image in a 16:9 window with black bars right and left).

[quote="ceenvee703"2) Do you have an Aquos? Mine says its native resolution is 1366x768 but I've never found or managed to create a modeline that works at that resolution. I'm running at 1280x768 and it looks pretty darn good anyway, so I'm not too worried about it.
[/quote]
No I have a cheapie one (WinBook) can you send me /post your XF86Config-4 file?

Here's the relevant sections... replace appropriate parts of your XF86Config-4 file...

Thanks. I will try the settings and connect via a VGA cable tonight. However, I must say that I am very VERY disappointed by the quality. As I mentioned, until now I was using a 10 year old 32" CRT TV connected via sVideo. The video quality wasn't great, but then again the TV wasn't great either.

Now I have an LCD TV on which DVDs (played through just sVideo) look absolutely fantastic. However, the downside is that with this TV I see all the flaws in the MythTV recordings/liveTV.

Granted I am using cable, and my cable quality isn't the best, but it seems that the cable signal noise to the PVR-250 really hurts the recording quality. Its like the junk/noise is amplified. On the old TV I didn't really notice it. On the new TV it stands out like a sore thumb!

On top of all that, my plan was to use a MacMini running MythTV OS X frontend to feed this TV. Last night as a test I connected my PowerBook to the TV using DVI, and while the OS X screens were beautiful (crisp and clear), the MythTV recording were horrible. Worse than the KnoppMyth box connected to the TV using sVideo (playing the same recording). On the Mac you could see EVERY imperfection, and it was amplified and enlarged even more. Its a shame since, the MythTV GUI looked fantastic on the Mac connected to the TV.

This is a very common problem with digital TVs in general. I remember a very deep sinking feeling when I got my first HDTV four years ago or so and hooked it up. I thought "Oh my god, my wife is going to kill me because the analog cable image looks SO BAD." Luckily, (a) she didn't kill me, and (b) you just kind of get used to how bad it looks. You also try to watch a lot of HDTV to remind yourself how good THAT looks.

The good news as far as MythTV is concerned, is that by using the denoise3d filter for playback, it actually improves the analog image quite a bit, in my opinion. Not sure that is an option for the Mac frontend, though. By using denoise3d and Bob deinterlacing, I get an image that I feel is considerably better than the direct analog cable signal.

Hmm, I'm writing that one down.

-brendan