Okay, I got a test setup of KnoppMyth running over the weekend. What I mean by "test" is that I bought a PVR-350 and put it in an old box to play with prior to shelling out the money to buy a dedicated box (and to determine what exactly to buy). So, my setup is: MSI Motherboard (KT3-Ultra2-c) with an AMD Athlon XP1900+, 512MB RAM, PVR-350, Linksys 10/100 PCI, DVD-ROM drive.

Problem: I've tried going from the audio out of the PVR-350 to the audio in of my motherboard and then using the audio out of my motherboard to the tv. When I do this I get sound from music and digital video, but not from recorded shows or live TV (sound output from the PVR-350). The only thing I could think of was that my audio is broken. Is there any way to verify this, or is there some known issue that I am overlooking?

Issue/question: The PVR-350 video out does not seem to handle playing DVDs or video files very well. I saw in this forum that this issue is with the card and not with processing power. Would I be better off using a video card for my video out? Is there a tried and true best card? Is there a tried and true cheap card? I wouldn't think you'd need good 3D acceleration...

Thanks in advance, I've been very impressed with both KnoppMyth, these forums, and the Wiki.

nVidia GeForce 440 or above.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

So any nVidia GeForce card that is newer than the MX440? Does the 440 run well? What advantages would I have with going with a MX4000 or a Ti4200? Any disadvantages besides higher price?

I wonder why as of late folks question the answers I give.... I wouldn't have recommended the card (chipset) it it didn't meet the criterias you specified. If you want to learn more about the various chipsets, I'd suggest visiting the nVidia site.[/list]

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Well, for one, you just said 440. I wanted to verify that it was the MX440... I'm sorry if I didn't find your response to be completely clear. I am new to working with Linux, and I would assume that the requirements for MythTV would be different than computer gaming. Most of the information on video cards is for gaming...

From reading around, I think I'm going to go with the FX5200. It's actually cheaper than the MX440 on Newegg. Unless I need the Ultra version of the 5200? Again, I haven't seen any distinction between the two on the forums.

I just want to make sure that I buy hardware that is going to work, work well, and that I get the best bang for my buck. If that is improper use of these forums, pls let me know.

I've gotten my sound to work, btw. My line-in input on my card was muted, and I was able to get it working using alsamixer.

any 5200 should be fine. I usually like to use the fanless ones, and ultra won't help you at all for video playback. clock speeds and such really don't make much difference for video playback. Mostly it's just the quality of the chips used on the card, and the 5200 seems to do much better job than the 440's from some accounts. Unless you are going to be doing gaming speed is not of much importance.

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Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

The wiki is your friend... http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=VideoCards