Hi all:

With the help of many nice folks on the forums here, I've got my Mythbox working reasonably well
with an nVidia Quadro2 Pro -based video card.

The thing is, this card is a bit large, is blocking proper airflow in my case, and the fan on it is
noisy as heck. I could just replace the fan, but that would still leave the size problem.

So I've been thinking about switching to a more modern card, such as a 5200 series. How hard
is it to uninstall the old card in KnoppMyth, and install the new card properly? Do I
have to have much Linux experience to do it? Would I have to reinstall KnoppMyth from
scratch again? I looked using Google for information on this, but couldn't seem to find the right
search terms.

Thanks in advance.

shplad

_________________
KnoppMyth R5C7
Abit NF7-S
Athlon XP Mobile 2500+
Hauppauge PVR-150 + PVR-150MCE
nVidia Geforce 6600GT
Samsung Spinpoint SATA 120GB
NEC ND-3520A DVD
Seasonic Super Tornado 350
BTC 9019URF Wireless Kbd. w. Joystick

if you are going to another nvidia card shutdown the machine swap the cards boot back up done. in linux the unified nvidia driver really is unified. nothing to do whatsoever as long as you put in a card supported by that driver which is most all of them, though they are pulling the tnt and gf1/2 out into a legacy driver with the very latest versions.

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

Xsecrets

XSecrets:

Thanks so much for your reply.

I was hoping it would be you that would answer. After all, it is you that has all the X Secrets, no?

That's great news. I was agonizing the move until now, so I guess I'll just go ahead and do it.

Any particular 5200 series cards I should choose or avoid for their TV-OUT and/or mode qualities?

shplad

_________________
KnoppMyth R5C7
Abit NF7-S
Athlon XP Mobile 2500+
Hauppauge PVR-150 + PVR-150MCE
nVidia Geforce 6600GT
Samsung Spinpoint SATA 120GB
NEC ND-3520A DVD
Seasonic Super Tornado 350
BTC 9019URF Wireless Kbd. w. Joystick

I haven't really heard anything bad about any of them. I think the most popular are the ones that are fanless that's what I got, I can't remember what brand now, but it's got vga/dvi/svid outputs and is fanless, and was pretty darn cheap.

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

Xsecrets

I'll have to reconfigure XFree again though for the new card, right?

shplad

_________________
KnoppMyth R5C7
Abit NF7-S
Athlon XP Mobile 2500+
Hauppauge PVR-150 + PVR-150MCE
nVidia Geforce 6600GT
Samsung Spinpoint SATA 120GB
NEC ND-3520A DVD
Seasonic Super Tornado 350
BTC 9019URF Wireless Kbd. w. Joystick

if you have the binary nvidia drivers installed and are going from one card they support to another you won't have to do anything at all. (well you might have to adjust the overscan or something like that if you are going to tv)

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

Xsecrets

Yipee! Thanks XSecrets. You just made my day. Hope I can do the same for you one of these days, when I'm more of a Myth guru.

shplad

_________________
KnoppMyth R5C7
Abit NF7-S
Athlon XP Mobile 2500+
Hauppauge PVR-150 + PVR-150MCE
nVidia Geforce 6600GT
Samsung Spinpoint SATA 120GB
NEC ND-3520A DVD
Seasonic Super Tornado 350
BTC 9019URF Wireless Kbd. w. Joystick

XSecrets:

I was considering upgrading to a Geforce 6600GT. What are the chances that Purevideo (video processor) can be implemented in Linux and/or Myth somehow?

shplad

_________________
KnoppMyth R5C7
Abit NF7-S
Athlon XP Mobile 2500+
Hauppauge PVR-150 + PVR-150MCE
nVidia Geforce 6600GT
Samsung Spinpoint SATA 120GB
NEC ND-3520A DVD
Seasonic Super Tornado 350
BTC 9019URF Wireless Kbd. w. Joystick

have no idea what purevideo is, but if it's not currently supported I wouldn't hold my breath.

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

Xsecrets

Here's an AnandTech article reviewing Purevideo.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2305

I'm sure you could skip the intro to the article, but the review part is interesting. In some cases you can really see a big difference, and in others you can't. Obviously the wmv features would not be too big a deal for Linux users.

Like XvMC, if it were ever well-implemented in Linux, could help with HD content, I guess. (I don't really know enough yet to know).

What's more, some of the cards that were supposed to have the feature had it, but it was really borked up. Coincidently, it was often in the more expensive cards.

shplad

_________________
KnoppMyth R5C7
Abit NF7-S
Athlon XP Mobile 2500+
Hauppauge PVR-150 + PVR-150MCE
nVidia Geforce 6600GT
Samsung Spinpoint SATA 120GB
NEC ND-3520A DVD
Seasonic Super Tornado 350
BTC 9019URF Wireless Kbd. w. Joystick

XSecrets:

I know I'm beating this thread to death, but is there any particular driver version you recommend or that I should avoid using R5A12 or similar?

shplad

_________________
KnoppMyth R5C7
Abit NF7-S
Athlon XP Mobile 2500+
Hauppauge PVR-150 + PVR-150MCE
nVidia Geforce 6600GT
Samsung Spinpoint SATA 120GB
NEC ND-3520A DVD
Seasonic Super Tornado 350
BTC 9019URF Wireless Kbd. w. Joystick

the only problem I know with any recent driver versions is anything newer that the 6629(or something close) splits the screen when trying to do 1080i to an hdtv, but other than that they work great. if you are stuck doing 1080i you need to stick with the 6629 drivers.

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

Xsecrets

XSecrets:

Thanks again.

shplad

_________________
KnoppMyth R5C7
Abit NF7-S
Athlon XP Mobile 2500+
Hauppauge PVR-150 + PVR-150MCE
nVidia Geforce 6600GT
Samsung Spinpoint SATA 120GB
NEC ND-3520A DVD
Seasonic Super Tornado 350
BTC 9019URF Wireless Kbd. w. Joystick