Since MV ballasts have been outlawed in the US, doesn't a 175W MH ballast work fine? Is there a better choice? Is the capacitor wired the same way for the MV lamp as for MH?

I believe most MH ballasts of 175 W to 1000 W probe start only are compatible with MV lamps. Better check the label, though, just to be sure.

The 175W is compatible with MV lamps. MH differ only in the required minimum OCV, for MV's this is no problem at all...
But the MH ballast would be heavier and/or more lossy then the MV one, mainly due to the higher OCV.

Yeah, I have a 400W F-can ballast that is labeled for both M59 (400W MH) and H33 (400W MV). I thought they stopped adding the MV designations only due to the ballast ban, even though the MH ballasts are still compatable. They are not allowed to mention MV lamp compatability on them anymore.  Thanks for the confirmation. I've got a couple 175W MVs in my collection and need to get a ballast next spending cycle. I wish I knew how to get ahold of city and utility scrap like many of the members here seem to do. Buying everything new is expensive...but I did get the F-can ballast for free.  The maintenance guy gave it to me since the installation they were for has been upgraded to T5HO and LED and all the other MH use core/coil ballasts.  There's at least 10 or 15 sitting in there that will most likely go to the scrap yard some day. They're heavy as h ell...about 25 lb each.

You probably can find who to ask, just search. I recently got 3 HPS floodlights which were going to be scrapped, and 2 of them are allready repaired by me and working (third one needs replacement socket). That despite i was told by workers on the site in the beginning that i ain't gonna get them