[mythtv-users] A few starting-out questions.

[Joseph A. Caputo]

On Tuesday 01 June 2004 17:16, Matt Morgan wrote:
> I'm starting to buy a system to set up mythtv on. I've been reading
> docs and shopping all day, and some things still confuse me.
>
> 2) I'm very confused about the tuner cards. Obviously I'd like to buy
> a cheap one, for example the Hauppauge WinTV-GO ($50 at compusa). But
> maybe the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 (at eBay for roughly $100) is
> important. What do I lose with the WinTV-GO, is it that it tunes, but
> doesn't encode? In which case I'd need a faster computer (but I can
> get a lot of processor-speed for the extra $50).

Right.  All (most?) of the cards being used with Myth can tune (though 
that's not really important either if you're using an external tuner), 
but the PVR-x50 series and their counterparts (AverMedia M-179, Yuan 
MPG-xxx cards) encode to MPEG-2 in hardware, so your PC doesn't have to 
do the work.  The trade-off is that MPEG-2 results in larger files than 
Myth's software-encoded MPEG-4; but you can save space by transcoding 
from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 after the recording is finished (Myth will do 
this for you, and it doesn't require as much CPU because it can take 
its time doing it, rather than encoding in real-time as the video is 
captured).

Also, the PVR-350 additionally has a hardware MPEG decoder with a 
superior TV-out (though the driver stability is still an issue for 
some).  So, as long as you leave your recordings in MPEG-2 format (the 
decoder won't help with MPEG-4 or RTjpeg), the -350 can take the 
decoding load away from your main CPU.

So yes, you can get a lot of CPU power for the extra $$ that you would 
spend on a PVR-250 or -350; it all depends upon your goals.  Using a 
less powerful CPU might go a long way to reducing noise, heat and power 
consumption, if those things are important to you.

> 3) In shopping for a computer, of course I'd like a small one in a
> form factor something like what AV-type equipment uses. Or a shuttle
> would be nice, but they're expensive compared to old Dell GX110's,
> Compaq Deskpros in the SFF, Evos, etc. The problem is that all these
> small ones have limited PCI/AGP slots. Generally these small
> computers have up to 2 slots; either one agp plus one pci, or two
> pcis. Into those slots I have to fit sound, video-in, and video-out.
> Hopefully I can use the built-in sound; and if necessary I can use a
> Hauppauge pvr-350, which gives me video-in and video-out in one card.
> Is there anything I'm forgetting?

With SFF systems, it's best to look for a board with most of what you 
need already on-board.  Sound, video, USB and Ethernet are pretty 
standard these days.  You'll probably want something that has dual 
video-out (VGA + S-Video or DVI).  Then you can use the 2 slots for 2 
tuner cards, or a tuner card + an add-on video card (if the on-board 
video isn't to your liking).

-JAC