[JP]

I saw the powerbuy for the MyHD hdtv card on digitalconnection.com and something didn't make sense to me. It states that you can watch HDTV in a window or full-screen. How is this possible?


I just assumed this card was similar to the hipix where hdtv came out of the hdtv card in full screen and when the hdtv card was not active your desktop was displayed via the regular video card through the loopback cable. How does the MyHD card get around this?

 

[Cliff Watson]

Unlike the HiPix card MyHD can send 480 video over the PCI bus to the graphics card overlay without the need for extra hardware used on the accessDTV card.


The overlay window can be sized from a postage stamp to full screen at any resolution on the VGA monitor and at the same time output HD resolutions from the MDP-100 card in component or RGB.

 

[JKohn]

Note this isn't particularly a ground breaking feature, both the AccessDTV and the WinTV-HD have this capability, and the HiPix probably will at some point in the future.

 

[Cliff Watson]

â€Note this isn't particularly a ground breaking feature, both the AccessDTV and the WinTV-HD have this capability, and the HiPix probably will at some point in the future.â€


Jeff,


While the concept of a windowed overlay for HDTV is not a groundbreaking feature the picture quality and smooth motion is groundbreaking compared to accessDTV. Also groundbreaking is the ability for the user to turn off the overlay at any time and mute AC-3 output during HDTV recording leaving the overlay and soundcard audio open for other functions.

 

[JKohn]

Hi Cliff,


I'll take your word on overlay picture quality, especially since I haven't seen it . Being able to turn off the overlay is definitely a good thing, I'd rather have no overlay at all than one you can't turn off. I think this option will probably be added to ADTV in a future release, and you can get it in a roundabout way now (which I use). I've never had problems with ADTV trying to grab my soundcard, but then again I have the 'AC-3/Home Theater' option set, so it shouldn't need the soundcard at all. HiPix is similar with the 'Decode Audio' button in the config dialog, which determines whether the sound card is used.

 

[Joe Q]

Jeff,

It may not be groundbreaking but it will free up a PCI slot for me.


Since I don't use the loopback cable due to image quality degradation, I have to use the Iomagic card to allow the Hipix display on desktop with Dscaler.


Only use the iomagic card to check the Hipix from my PC as the HDTV is in another room. A simple desktop display is all I need for my purposes.



Since all my PCI slots are filled, That card can now be removed and replaced with a firewire card for the D-VHS I am getting.



Joe