[mythtv-users] Building a box for Mythtv/Question

[Jeff C]

At 10:53 AM 5/26/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>All,
>
>If these have been repeated before, my apologies. I checked the archives
>and couldn't scrounge up much. I'm building a new box just for MythTV.
>It looks fantastic and very promising. My questions to all of you
>follow:

I just built mine so hopefully I can offer some thoughts... cost was a 
major focus area for me so I went fairly affordable...
I based my system around a Duron 1.1Ghz Proc and 256MB of RAM but I find I 
could use a bit more Proc and I had to up the ram to 384MB (both back and 
front end on this machine).  For audio I disable the onboard sound and put 
in an OEM SBLive card.

>.Is there an IR Receiver/Remote that you've had a great experience with?
>Is the remote that comes with the Sound Blaster Audigy a decent one for
>this task? If I use the PVR250 is that a nice speedy remote?

If you are going to get a PVR250 anyway, then I think you will find the PVR 
250 remote does the job.  It has a fair number of "extra" buttons so you 
can cram almost all the features on to the remote.  There is a bit of a 
struggle between volume/nav buttons but someone has coded a way around that 
or you can just use your amp/tv remote for volume (which is what I do as I 
rarely change it anyway).  The remote behaves like a completely normal 
remote so I'm not sure what you mean by speedy?  Interactions feel like a 
regular TV remote to me.

>.I've read a lot in the archives about using a special serial cable to
>control a cable TV box or DirecTV box. I couldn't actually find anyone
>who's done this... If you have, does it work well? IE Fast Channel
>changing response times? Where can you find (purchase) it?

Can't help you here but this definitely comes up on the list all the 
time.  You may want to include info on what cable/sat box you are referring to.

>.Regarding the last question, does the PVR-250 work well w/this setup
>(DirecTV or Digital Cable)? Is there a lag in changing channels?

There is a small delay in changing channels due to the rebuffering that 
takes place (I am on analog cable).  I'm not sure if it is longer if you 
are on digital cable or sat.  I noticed this the first few days we had Myth 
in the living room but now that we are used to it it is fairly transparent.

>.Svideo out on a TV card vs. VGA to TV adaptor?

I am using the cheapest NVidia card I could find - a GeForce2MX 64MB with 
TV Out.  It has well supported docs and drivers from NVidia.  I have some 
overscan (black bars around my image) issues that are minor - but for the 
cost (~$40ish USD) it was worth it.


>PS I just noticed someone posted one of these while I was typing this
>up, I apologies for two newbie posts in one day!

I'm not sure which archives you were able to search but here is a link for 
the ones with the more detailed interface:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/perl/mailarc/gforum.cgi?do=search

-Jeff