[mythtv-users] Opinions on my hardware choices for a new PVR

[Jonathan Moore]

Let me prefis this with  I have only built one of these and ended up with a Via Eden 
5000, and a PVR 350 in a modified IBM NetVista case. We wanted something really 
small and I wanted to play with Mini-ITX 
 
> Antec Overture case -- Should look good in the living room and is  
> supposed to be quiet 
 
This case passed the "wife" test. There were a few others she liked even better, but 
she would be willing to have one of these in the living room. Antec also makes a cude 
case that would work well in some entertainment centers. 
 
> Hauppauge PVR 350 -- for encoding and decoding 
>  
> On my optional list I have: 
>  
> Hauppauge PVR-250 -- for dual recording 
 
If you are planning on going out to the onboard video card anyway why spend the 
extra cash on the 350? As far as I know the only way to make use of the onboard 
mpg2 decode is to send the video output through it. I went this route to work around 
the low end cpu on my via, but if I were building a full sized/powered system I would 
spend the money on multiple 250s. 
 
>  
> Neatgear 54Mbps wireless card -- streaming video to other PCs? 
>  
 
I have a friend that claims to be streaming via G wireless to his iBook laptop running 
an OS X ported frontend, so it should work, esp for playback of highly compressed 
video such as saved in mpeg4, but I think even mpeg2 works for at least a single 
stream. I am told the B is a little dicy with mpeg2. 
 
 
> Wireless keyboard and mouse -- For non-PVR uses, games, browsing the  
> web, etc? (Any recommendations?) 
>  
> I considered going with a VIA M1000 but it seems like the software  
> support is not as good and/or trickier to setup. Plus there is less room  
> for expansion and performance might not be that good if I go outside the  
> PVR space (maybe add in some games for my little bro :) ). 
 
I wouldn't go with this line unless you have a compeling reason, size, space, cost, 
curiosity, etc. I really love the small form factor of my Eden but I am about ready to 
switch to something more powerful and easier to work with. I recently had a drive 
crash and it took my about 3 or 4 days to get the thing back together because of all 
the compiling on a slow box. 
 
 
>  
> Well what do you guys think? 
 
I think your parents will really enjoy it. 

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