[mythtv-users] my experience with Asus Pundit / PVR 250

[Eric Gardner]

I just built a MythTV box using an Asus Pundit and a PVR 250.  First, I
want to echo the sentiments of other recent users. This is a tremendous
application.  Thanks to an active developer and user community the
installation was virtually painless.  I followed the mythtv-users mailing
list for a couple of weeks before deciding on the Pundit with a PVR 250, a
2.4 GHz P4, a 120GB Barracuda, and 512MB PC2100 RAM.  For the time being
the box is serving as both a backend and a frontend but even so it's
probably a bit overbuilt.  I thought that I'd summarize my experience with
the build process and the system performance on the off chance that it
will help someone else wishing to build a similar box.
 
 
General Pundit/PVR Comments
---------------------------
 
First off, I was pleasantly surprised that except for the front cover the
case is entirely metal.   I would have liked for the front to be metal too
but given that nowhere on the Asus sight could I find mention of the case
material and also given the low price for the included features, I'm
fairly happy with the build quality and appearance.
 
I wasn't quite as disappointed by the PVR remote as I expected to be given
what others were saying about it.  It's not great but I've used worse.
 
The Pundit is a bit noisier than I would have gathered from the comments
of others.  I enabled the quiet CPU fan mode in the BIOS but even at low
speeds the fan is noiser than I would prefer and that's even when the hard
disk is not spinning.  Because of the noise I was asked to move it out of
the bedroom down to the home theater in the basement.
 
The PVR card was extremely hard to get into the Pundit case.  I had to
temporarily bend part of the metal case to get the card in there. If I had
a good pair of tin snips I probably would have permanently modified the
case.  It's not just getting the card into the box that is an issue. 
After installing the card I tried bending the case back to its original
state but the card causes the side of the case to bulge slightly.  Asus
should definitely consider increasing the width of the box by 1/4"-1/2" to
accomodate typical PCI cards.  With this one change I'd be much more
likely to recommend this configuration to others.  As it stands, this
card/case combination is neither for the faint of heart nor the
mechanically challenged.
 
I originally went with a P4 2.4 because I wanted enough headroom to later
add another capture card.  However, given the difficulties of getting one
PVR into the case and the low CPU load (see below) if I had to do this
over again I'd spec a cheaper CPU.  At some point I'll probably put a
lesser CPU into it and turn it into a dedicated FE and I'll move the
current CPU into a larger case with a second PVR for a dedicated backend.
 
 
Build Process
-------------
 
I decided to stay simple at first and just go with the Myth 0.10 rpms.  At
some point I'll try compiling CVS but for now I'm simply enjoying a mostly
working PVR.
 
Jarod's instructions for building a MythTV box with RedHat 9.0 and a PVR
250 helped a great deal.  I did encounter a couple of small problems:
 
1) I had difficulty getting the custom ATrpms kernel because the version
had changed from that mentioned in the instructions.   I managed to dig
around and find what I needed.  The next day I was getting ready to send
Jarod email when I noticed that the instructions had been updated to fix
this.
 
2 l had to reinstall the broadcom driver for the NIC after installing the
new kernel.  I still haven't figured out whether this was really necessary
or whether I was doing something wrong.
 
3) I also had difficulties getting lirc to build because the instructions
for copying the appropriate kernel config to the right location were
missing.  This too was fixed in the instructions the next day.
 
4) Two of the settings in the suggested .lircrc seem backwards to me.  I
switched the settings for the "Skip" and "Replay" keys so that my .lircrc
now has the following:
 
 
----------
# Fast forward (default in Myth is 10 minute segment)
begin
prog = irxevent
button = SKIP
config = Key Page_Down CurrentWindow
end

# Rewind (default in Myth is 10 minute segment)
begin
prog = irxevent
button = REPLAY
config = Key Page_Up CurrentWindow
end
----------
 
 
System Performance
------------------
 
I've set Myth up to record at 720x480 using the hardware MJPEG at the
highest quality setting.  Running 'top' I've managed to get the CPU load
to go as high as 45% but that's only when jumping around ridiculously
during playback of a recording.  More typically during playback the CPU
load hovers between 1-5%.  During recording the CPU load is typically
8-11%.
 
Currently I've got pretty bad broadcast TV (the cable guy is coming
Thursday morning) so it's a little hard for me to evaluate the picture
quality.  I have experienced some intermittent lockups but nothing very
critical or hard to rectify.  I also notice occasional hiccups (1/2 sec to
1 sec picture and sound stutters).


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