Do you use an Xcard with Sage? Would you?

[stanger89]

Set your display to 8-bit color and see how it looks. If they did away with the gradients, they could probably make a 256 color OSD that looks similar.

[Crowdx42]

Really I don't think there would be any problem with 8 bit resolution, as long as the GUI was done in that color pallette there would be no problem, think of what a black and whit picture looks like, grayscale only uses variations of shades of black, so really all that is used in Sage OSD is a blue instead of black, the only problem would be with imported logos for different channels.
Patrick

[stanger89]

Yeah, it's definitely possible, but would require a special UI for the XCard (perhaps that's why Jeff isn't planning on doing it). The current 2.0.15 UI makes good use of 32-bit color.

[Crowdx42]

Is not really the 32 bit color, is transparancy that makes it look good. In fact if it is 8 bit and not 8 colors then it would look very much the same OSD as shows on standard graphics card.
Take an image into something like Photoshop and change the color to 8 bit per channel and the picture will look more or less exactly the same.
Patrick

[Opus4]

Originally posted by stanger89
would require a special UI for the XCard

Not necessarily... all you have to do is do a 32bit -> 8bit image conversion when they are loaded & have it dither the colors in the process. If I recall correctly from a game I wrote back in the mid-late 90s, Windows will do that part for you.

I think the biggest issue is the amount of time it might take vs. the number of xcard users who would benefit. It just seems like a product on its way out -- faster machines don't need it to help w/the cpu usage & HD TVs can simply take the output from your video card. Of course, I'm still not clear how video cards are progressing regarding svideo output... the xcard has great svideo output, but aren't video cards getting better?

- Andy

[Crowdx42]

Well the MPEG4 decoding is also a great bonus, with this feature of the X-Card Sage could natively support Divx without having to worry about codecs. I still do not think that faster machines are close to the decoding the X-Card can do in hardware, I have a fast machine and still like to use the X-Card, even the sound benefits from the X-Card.
Patrick

[Methius]

Well I'm searching for a Hardware decoder with excellent tv-out possibility (with OSD/Desktop)
The reason being that current graphics cards just don't cut it when comparing them with real tv on a SDTV (in my opinion). There is always some quality loss.

So to wrap it up, an OSD for XCard would be perfect in my opinion.
Maybe write a script or such that automatically switches to the XCard output when it's activated when the OSD is developed.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Methius

(with OSD/Desktop)

The Xcard can't do the Desktop.

[kny3twalker]

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ead.php?t=7766

Netstream 2000 TV from Sigma Designs
expensive though
200-300 dollars

[RobDMB]

Would this Netstream 2000TV output the OSD since it can output the desktop or would it have the same limitation as the xcard?

[stanger89]

Probably not, I'd imagine it's video or desktop. There's a small chance it uses some color keying but I'd be surprised.

[x[corwyn]]

Everyone knows how I feel on here...but to reiterate, I think one of the must have features is getting the OSD working on the xCard. It is the best picture for a standard TV bar none else...Not to mention now the Plextor is supporting Divx encoding, the xCard supports divx decoding, and is a very stable platform, unlike the pvr-350. Its a slamdunk for a good all in one PVR solution.