[mythtvnz] Video card for a diskless frontend?

[Stuart Whelan]

On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 7:40 PM, Brett Miller<blmiller at slingshot.co.nz> wrote:

> I would suggest the EN9500GT-512K with S-video VGA & DVI  (VGA also) $110
> from the right places.
> This is available silent form so better thermal/noise management.

This sounds good to me, I am looking into it now.

> The video card is sometimes the cheapest component in a PC but the most
> important in a HTPC.
> Too much video grute is a possible waste of power & costs money to run.
> The power management of video cards is still not very effective in real
> tests.

Yes, the selection of the videocard is what I am spending most of my
time on.. The TV-Out side is new to me, the rest of the PC I can
handle no problems.

> What is the model of TV ?
> The CRT TV will have limited set of operating modes it will sync.
> The TV may perform upscaling/pre-scaling etc.
> Might need to use custom modeline entries for X.

The TV is a JVC AV-32X4BA. I did a google search on it but didn't come
up with any specs that could tell me what the operating modes are.. I
have the instruction manual but they are not listed there that I can
see. Is there a website that I missed that may list them?

Is there a procedure I can follow to find them out, maybe trying
different modes in my xorg.conf?

> The X server/Nvidia interface/configuration is a big weakness of Linux so
> expect problems.
> There are connection arrangements with dual head video cards that I have not
> had success by "xorg.conf" file manipulation.

Yes, I have run in to problems here also. I have had Mythbuntu running
through the dying 8800GT S-Video and and also the S-Video output on my
laptop.

Lots of mucking around trying to find the right resolution to drive
the TV output at, then setting X and Y offsets and sizes in MythTV. I
found the 880GT picture was very hazy/filled with scan lines (I
think), but the card is dying so it might just be that.

Thanks for the advice!
Stuart.