Couple of questions

[PVRUser]

Hi all. I just spent my weekend evaluation Beyond TV 3.4. I wanted to compare it to SageTV but I am using an AIW9000 which does not appear to be supported. I just ordered a new rig for my PVR. It will include a Hauppauge 350. I intent do put the AIW9000 in the same box as well.

I want to play DVDs through SageTV (not supported in Beyond TV). I understand that AIW9000 is good because it does hardware decoding (I heard it is only hardware assisted).

one of the advantages of the 350 is it does MPEG2 decoding.


Is the 350 going to be usable for hardware decoding?
If not, can I use SageTV's DVD player to play through my AIW's decoder? If so do I just have to load the graphics drivers and decoder and not the MMC and other files?

Thanks

[stanger89]

The AIW doesn't really have a hardware decoder, it has hardware acceleration for MPEG 2 decoding via DXVA, mostly just a technicality but CPU usage with DXVA is higher than with a full hardware decoder like the 350 has but lower than full software decoding.

The 350 can't decode DVDs, only standard MPEG2 like what it records, but it works fine for recorded programs.

Your AIW will work fine for watching DVDs, I watch everything, TV/DVDs, through my Radeon 9500. All I have installed as far as ATI software is the Catalyst 3.4 drivers. I use Sonic Cineplayer filters/decoders for all my decoding and I'm quite happy that way. You will have to have decoders that support encrypted DVDs, like Sonic/NVDVD/WinDVD/PowerDVD if you want to watch DVDs, none of the Hauppauge HW/SW can decode DVDs.

[PVRUser]

Thanks for the response. I currently have PowerDVD. I have the highest level (5.1 audio) but I do not think it is the latest version. So it sounds like I can use the decoder that comes with that. Could I also just install the Decoder that comes with my AIW? I just want to make sure that whatever I use will take advantage of my "hardware accelerated" AIW. Or does it work by default?

Also, I believe version 2 will support DVD playing. In this case will I be able to again use the "hardware accelerated" part of my AIW?

I appreciate your feedback.

[PVRUser]

Based on readings in this forum about hardware decoding I wanted to ask the following questions.

Since my 350 will have hardware decoding am I better to hook it up to my LCD via an SVideo or should I just use my AIW? I guess this is something I could just try both ways.

Since the 350 does not do hardware decoding through the VGA what would be my best solution? Something like an XCard? Would this provide a noticable difference over using the AIW? Will a card work with the 350?

Thanks again!

[stanger89]

Connection in order of decreasing quality: DVI, VGA, Component, S-vid, Composite, RF. If you can use DVI/VGA/or Component, don't even think about S-vid. The absolute best PQ possible would be to get an Xcard and a Holo3Dgraph I/II. But, short of extreme solutions like that or a PDI/Xcard/Dscaler setup (search the AVS forum), your best bet would be to output through the AIW. That way, whatever decoders you chose, e.g. PowerDVD, will deinterlace the video and the AIW will scale it to the resolution of your LCD. The decoders/AIW will most like do a much better job with the deinterlacing/scaling than the LCD would do if you used S-vid.

About hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration is available through the DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration) interface. To use DXVA, just make sure you install recent drivers and Directx. The Catalyst 3.10s should work fine along with DX9.

[falchulk]

Hmmm, I think I am reading something strange here. You do know that in order to get the decodeing benefits from the pvr350 you MUST use the output from the 350 and turn local play off? Otherwise you are just using the 350 as a 250 and just an encoder. So you would have to have a connection from the ati for watching DVD/general pc use and another for the 350 for unencrypted mpeg2.