[mythtv-users] new (2 tuner!) mythtv installation...

[David jeske]

Hello all,

I brought up a mythtv implementation this past weekend and I want to
share some of the lessons I learned so they might help someone else
as much as all of your discussion helped me.

I decided to bring up mythtv because my Tivo broke, again. I didn't
want to buy a new one and have it break also, and I really want 2-3
tv/cable tuners. I also just wanted to play with mythtv. My first
goal was really to 'see if mythtv works reasonably before building a
custom htpc' so it was based on the PC I already had around. It took
10 hours over two days for me to get my first setup working well.
Then it took another 3-4 hours to add a second tuner (a PVR-250).
Here is my current working configuration:

P4 2.4ghz
Nvidia gforce4 mx 440 w/tvout AGP card
ATI TV Wonder VE capture card (mono, sound card daily chain)
Hauppauge PVR-250
14gb boot drive, 160gb data drive, dvd drive

-- Quick Notes:

I don't have an IR remote working yet.

I have a hacky "fixaudio.sh" script which sets the audio input on the
PVR-250 every second, because mythtv or the ivtv driver insists on
setting it wrong each time it changes the channel.

I run "nice -15 mythfrontend" to prevent stutter. If I don't, it
stutters once every 2-3 minutes.

I have unsuccessfully tried a lifeview flyvideo2000 (saa7135) and a
leadtek winfast tv2000 xp (conexant/bt878a). The flyvideo needs newer
drivers than I'm running. The winfast is a bt8x8 and should work, but
I just get tuner bluescreens in xawtv.

-- relevant /etc/modules.conf

# nvidia kernel module
alias char-major-195 nvidia-1.0-5328

# PVR-250 ivtv modules setup (/dev/video0)
alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 ivtv
options ivtv debug=1
options tuner type=2
options msp3400 once=1 simple=1
add below ivtv msp3400 saa7115 tuner

# ATI TVWonder VE (/dev/video1)
alias char-major-81-1 bttv
options tuner type=2

--

You can read more about my install experience here:

http://mozart.chat.net/~jeske/Projects/MythTv/my_initial_setup.html
-- 
David Jeske
http://www.chat.net/~jeske/