[mythtv-users] What Cards would you get

[Andrew Dodd]

Quoting Scroll Saw Dust <scrollsawdust at yahoo.com>:

> I'm about to build my first MythTv box. 
>  I have:
> 
> Pentium 4, 2.53Ghz
> Abit Sr7-8x mobo
> Nvidia GEforce 4 Mx440 64Meg w/tv out
> 512 Megs Ram
> Several Drives available:
>   Seagate 120Gb ata100
>   Maxtor 120Gb ata133
>   Maxtor 80Gb ata133
>   Maxtor 160Gb ata133
>     all r 7200 rpm, 
>   Maxtor 60Gb ata133, 5400 rpm
> 
> Toshiba DVD/Cd
> Sony CDRW
> 
> I'll be feeding from Cable and Dish Satellite.
> I'd like to record 2 programs at once and watch livetv
> but recording 2 programs at once is more important.
> I currently mostly record from cable as I don't have a
> cable box. 
> 
> I'd like to be able to take my ReplayTV and Tivo out
> of my system rack and replace them with a Myth box
> w/mp3-ogg support and picture viewer/slideshow.
> 
> 1) Am I nutz think'n I might be able to accomplish
> this
Not at all.  Your hardware specs are best described as "massive and complete
overkill" unless you plan on doing HD.  (In which case, you will likely need a
little more processor oomph - Although if you run Gentoo with aggressive
optimization flags a 2.5 GHz P4 might be able to do 1080i.)

> 1) what else do I need
Capture cards, and an IR receiver.  (Included with some)
> 2) what TV cards would you buy and why. I'm leaning
> towards the avermedia cards.
Two categories:
1)  ivtv boards - Hauppauge PVR-x50s are the best supported, but people have had
excellent results with Avermedia M179s (I think Jarod uses them exclusively now???)
2)  pcHDTV HD-2000 for ATSC HD reception.  (i.e. over-the-air HDTV in the U.S.)
 Needs a fast CPU for playback though.  (The recording backend machine needs
little to no CPU, if you are running seperate frontend/backend machines.)

Or if you're in Europe, a DVB receiver card.

> Oh, I have a Harmony Remote that should control all
> this :)!! :???
Set it up to use the RC-5 protocol and it will work with the receivers bundled
with Hauppauge PVR-x50s.  Use a homebrew LIRC serial receiver and you can set up
the remote any way you want.