[mythtv-users] Advice on hardware setup

[Cedar McKay]

>
> At 275W, this system draws 10 times as much power as my TiVo, and 
> since I'm paying 13 cents per kWh, this system will cost me 3.57 cents 
> an hour to run,  or 25 dollars a month. In comparison, the TiVo costs 
> only 2.75 dollars a month in power, but I also pay a 12.95 per month 
> fee for the service, so it comes out to about 16 dollars per month.


this is not a fair comparison unless your tivo has two tuners and has 
multiple front ends. Does it?  :-)   To get the same (almost) 
functionality you would need two tivos = 16x2 = $32 a month.


also, your specs are way overboard in my opinion. I think you can get 
away with a lot less using mythtv's mpg4 encoding. Instead of doing your 
tests in windows, why don't you do your tests in mythtv and cut out the 
slop? It wouldn't suprise me if you could get two streams recorded at 
once (and one playing to boot) with that 2200 xp that you have. Also, 
I'll send you a buck if you can do a side-by-side and tell the 
difference between 640 x 480 and 720 x 480 outputed to you tv. I 
personally can't tell the difference between 480 x 480 and 640 x 480, 
but no buck this time for you if you can!


cedar