[mythtv-users] newbie w/ some questions... (long)

[josephc]

OT, but holy crap did you get a good deal

On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 gary.mui at sungard.com wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm getting ready to build a box just for MythTV and despite reading the
> docs and browsing the forums, I've got some relatively newbie questions
> still and would also appreciate any feedback on the proposed setup I'm
> planning.  I'll probably start with a 1 encoding machine as both front and
> back end, but I'd like to get to a 2 channel encoding backend w/ multiple
> front ends.  I might though want to do 2 channel encoding and 1 channel
> decoding that can get multiplexed through my video distro system over coax
> (e.g. on channel 3).
> 
> Hardware
> =========
> I just ordered a Dell 4550 w/ the following specs for $480 (after rebates,
> discount, and fatwallet.com):
> - Intel P4 - 2.66 ghz (533mhz FSB)
> - 256 DDR2700 Ram (Do I need to upgrade to 512 for dual channel encoding?
> - 30 gig drive (I might swap this out for a 10 gig drive for the OS and
> then much bigger drives for video storage once I verify recording quality)
> - DVD+R/RW drive - Can MythTV / Linux burn DVD's?  If not, I might swap
> this out for a dvd player and then put the DVD+R/RW drive into a win2k box
> for exporting / archiving shows (smallville, enterprise, etc...).  It would
> also be cool to have the DVD drive so I can watch DVD's (progressive?)
> directly through the machine or maybe even rip the movies on to it so I'd
> have an immediately accessible movie archive (especially for all of my
> kids' videos).
> - ATI TV Wonder (PCI) - I currently have this card in another machine using
> Snapstream. It seems like this should work for now so I will put it into
> the new machine when I get it.  If the WinTV PVR-250 works better, I will
> probably get this for sure for the 2nd encoding channel.  If it does work
> better (mostly concerned w/ recording quality, not drive space) then I'd
> love to see the ivtv drivers support 2 of these in 1 myth-tv box.  If the
> ATI card works well though, I might try to use two of these and assume that
> 2.66 ghz should be enough to handle encoding 2 channels.
> - Sound card - integrated sound - I'm not sure if this will do, but if not,
> what would people suggest?  I've heard that SB Live works ok and I've got
> this in a couple other machines, so I might start cannibalizing then.  For
> 2 channel encoding, do I need 2 separate sound devices?
> - TV out - The machine will come with an nVidia 64mb geforce 4 card w/ TV
> out.  I also have a gforce2 card w/ TV out - would that work better?  My 65
> Mitsubishi also supports a 640x480 vga input - is that also an option?  I'm
> basically looking for best possible quality w/ 'normal' components.
> 
> 
> Software
> ========
> Linux - I haven't built a Linux box in like 10 years, so I'm totally out of
> touch w/ the latest distros.  I was assuming I'd go with RH9 (probably
> easiest to install and I'd figure on getting the latest version).  But
> since most people seem to use RH8, should I go with that?  I can go w/
> others (Debian, Gentoo) if people say it's less problematic, but I'd rather
> not spend a lot of time pulling out hair over setting this up.
> 
> MythTV - Should I get the .8 version or build from CVS?
> 
> 
> Another general question is whether the web interface allows me to control
> what the myth backend(s) has scheduled for recording.  Would this be one
> website where I can pick shows to record for both encoding channels? Or do
> I need to go to a different website / URL for each recording channel or for
> each myth back-end?
> 
> I'm expecting this box to come in a couple days, so until then I'll keep
> reading the forums to get ideas of what's best to set up. But thanks for
> this great software.  I was planning to go with ReplayTV, but as fas as I
> can tell, this has all the same functionality plus more (2 channel encoding
> box is a big one).
> 
> T.I.A for any suggestions / tips.
> Gary
> 
> 
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