I've read a bit, and it seems that a GF4 mx440 seems to be about the most common card people are using.

I've also seen comments that it's not the best quality video output.

The PVR-350 theoretically has the best, but it's got it's own problems, and is fairly expensive.

What else would people suggest?

well you can pretty much figure the only one that will work without a ton of configuration and troubleshooting is the nvidia. And from what I've read the pvr350 is about the best svid out picture available, although I haven't really read anywhere that anyone has done a direct comparison of all the options. I've heard that the ati and sis tv out are pretty nice, but they are going to be as much of a headache to setup as the pvr350.

Hmm.. I've read a bunch of posts about the sis video as well.

I thought the PVR350 tvout would be the hardest though since the drivers are fairly incomplete.

Then again, I haven't heard much good about SIS video even just for desktop use.

well the sis drivers are very new as well, and ati requires use of the framebuffer which has many of the same problems as the pvr350. I would say if you have a 350 or the money for one and the nvidia tvout isn't good enough for you then you might as well battle with the 350 then you get the hardware decode as well.

Is the PVR-350 fully supported out of the box by KnoppMyth? including btaudio and video out?

The PVR-x50 don't use btaudio. Audio and video is muxed in the stream. TV out on the 350 isn't supported out the box.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

but then again neither is ati or sis tvout. the only thing supported "out of the box" is nvidia tvout. like I said if that is not good enough for you go for the pvr350 since all of the other options will be a big pain.

I have a 350 that I just got "working" . Even when it is finally working (giving good video out) there are still more headaches to deal with. In fact, I have finally given up and I use an old GForce and a video to tv converter. The picture is about the same and the nvidia works with everything.

PVR..
1. Pain in the ax to get the video out in the first place.
2. Sound is output from the card through a sound out port that has to be tied back into a sound card. (Yes, the card does digitize the sound into the file but when the card plays it back, it doesn't feed the sound through the PCI bus to the sound card but throug a patch cable)
3. My second TV card isn't a PVR and it's files won't play through the PVR output.

In other words, I would recommend a PVR 250 and an Nvidia GForce4!!!
1. great vid quality
2. easy configuration
3. easy upgradability

Have a nice day!!
P.S. I am in the process of pricing a GForce4 right now...
P.P.S. I love my Myth box... this will be the last month I pay for TIVO.

What about scan converters? Any good or bad experiences out there?

I use a scan converter with my GeForce video card. It works really well. It is just not as convenient as having the svideo right on the video card itself. Also, you don't have any XFree configuration issues. It just works as long as you don't set the resolution too high. I use 800x600.

I have a PVR-350 that I use with Knoppmyth and it is really not that hard to get working. I used the TV out on a GeForce 4 before I attempted the TV out on the 350 and the quality was OK. Now that I have the 350 working I would never go back. I am not saying it is the perfect solution, it has some drawbacks but I think it is definately worth it. Follow the TV out instructions on the IVTV page and ask here if you have any problems.

http://ivtv.writeme.ch/tiki-index.php?page=TvOutHowto

How's the divx playback? I've been reading on the mailing list and some people have no problem with it while others do.....

That's one of the drawbacks, on my old machine which was R4 the playback was not good, very jerky. I just installed R4V2 this weekend but have not tried to play a Divx file and I don't know if any work has been done otoimprove Divx playback or if it is even possible.