Capturing TV with BT878--what resolution is supported?

[vputz]

I'm using an old Hauppage WinTV card to capture video via mplayer. Now, mplayer will happily let me choose just about whatever geometry I want, and I want to use the best geometry I can (ie 1:1 with the hardware)--or at least start from there. I've done some casual searching and found varying reports as to what resolution my card can support (everything from "oh no, it can only do 320x200" to "full NTSC 720x480").

But I feel certain there must be some way to ask the driver or some such. Any pointers?

Thanks-->VPutz

[NeddySeagoon]

vputz,

The bt878 is programmable to arbitary resolutions up to its maximum sample rate.
I would be surprised if any more than standard TV rates were avalilable out of the box.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[jbinto]

If NTSC, use 720x480.
If PAL, use 756x480 or 744x576.

I have a NTSC bt8x8, so I can only really comment intelligently on that.

Remember it depends on your application. If for archiving purposes 720x480 definietly. If for PVRing (record, no processing, watch & delete), 512x384 or 320x200 will be fine.

I doubt there's a way to query the drivers, if there is I don't know it.

[vputz]

Hmm, thanks. Right now it seems to be doing 720x480 with aplomb, so I'll likely stick with that even with record-and-delete shows (I generally watch and delete within a week of recording, so the extra space doesn't matter so much). I had misunderstod how the vid capture worked; thanks for setting me straight!

Now if I could only make up my mind as to if setting the TV-out to 720x480 was worth it... (it looks fine, but much downloaded video--and even my recorded video at 720x480--seems to be displaying "thinner" with black bars on the sides, even though my Freevo menu is nicely full-screen).

Also--if anyone happens to read this and knows--I'm using an Nvidia 4400 with X sending the output to TV-out, which seems to be working OK. Is the xv extension best for players like mplayer/xine or is there any advantage whatsoever to trying something with "nvtv tv-out"?

-->VPutz