Hardware decoders PQ

[h8dk97]

I'm just curious which hardware decoder gives best PQ

pvr350
xcard
media mvp

What are your experiences. Also, out of the three which one do you find most stable with sagetv?
Thanks.

[krutaw]

Originally Posted by h8dk97

I'm just curious which hardware decoder gives best PQ

pvr350
xcard
media mvp

What are your experiences. Also, out of the three which one do you find most stable with sagetv?
Thanks.

The PVR-350 and Media MVP give exactly the same quality because they have the exact same decoder chip. Can't speak for the Xcard, but the mvp and 350 are quite nice.

The good:

MVP
- all in one setup
- Only requires a single client license to run multiple units
- Nice picture quality


350
- Nice picture quality
- Faster menus than the MVP
- Adds an encoder to the box


The bad:

MVP
- Slow menus
- Doesn't decode AC3 (means ripping dvd's is harder)

350
- Quirky with all but a handful of motherboards
- can only run 1 per machine, which requires multiple client licenses
- Doesn't decode AC3 (means ripping dvd's is harder)
- Requires extra cooling in the case

All in all, I use both my 350 and my MVP, however, if I had it to do all again, I would have fone with an MVP and a PVR-250 (since i no longer use the hardware decoder on the PVR-350).

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by krutaw

MVP
- Only requires a single client license to run multiple units

I'm pretty sure this would be a violation of that single license.

[blade]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

I'm pretty sure this would be a violation of that single license.

I think you can run multiple instances, as long as all of them are run on the same computer.

I'm just curious which hardware decoder gives best PQ

pvr350
xcard
media mvp

Are you talking about for SDTV or a HDTV set? The 350 and MVP can only do SDTV resolutions, where the xcard can output higher resolutions so it should look better if you're using a HDTV set.

[Opus4]

There is currently nothing stopping anyone from running multiple instances of the client on a single machine to control multiple MVPs.

I don't have a 350, but I use an Xcard and an MVP -- both have been working quite well, though I never compared them side-by-side.

The downside of any hardware decoder is that they are limited to playing only the format(s) they support. And, at least in terms of the Xcard, you can't play all of its supported formats from within SageTV.

- Andy

[krutaw]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

I'm pretty sure this would be a violation of that single license.

Nope, as long as they run on a single machine, it's legal. That's why Frey included the "-multi" command line. :-D

[dbfresh23]

Ok, I stand corrected

[h8dk97]

Originally Posted by blade

Are you talking about for SDTV or a HDTV set? The 350 and MVP can only do SDTV resolutions, where the xcard can output higher resolutions so it should look better if you're using a HDTV set.

It's SDTV I'm talking about. Now having all three (350, xcard and mvp) my impression is that 350 gives the best PQ, although the mvp's decoder is supposed to be the same I remember that I couldn't tell the difference between live tv and 350's output (that was when my 350 used to work). And mvp is probably the most stable, it's working without any problems for me. The only thing is it's dark picture, not sure how other people solved it but I had to increase brightness on my tuners. Interested to know if there are any other ways to fix this?

Thanks.