[mythtv-users] Ready for use?

Marc Tousignant drayson at net1plus.com
Sat Jul 23 02:11:11 EDT 2005


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-users-
> bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Chris Lopeman
> Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 9:52 PM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Ready for use?
> 
> Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> 
> >On Thu, Jul 21, 2005 at 03:57:53PM -0500, Chris Lopeman wrote:
> >
> >
> >>   Is anybody successfully using mythTV on a regular basis?  I just
> don't
> >>   want  to  put  something  together that is going to have problems
> with
> >>   basic  functionality  every other day.  Or is gonna work but look
> like
> >>   crap on my TV.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Sure, there are lots of people.
> >
> >If you're buying everything from scratch, and you take advice from the
> >right people, you stand a *much* better chance of ending up with an
> >appliance.
> >
> >Is a little Linux background helpful?  Sure.
> >
> >Will everything go perfectly?  Probably not.
> >
> >Does everything go perfectly with a TiVo?  Probably not, either.
> >
> >Is the extra functionality worth the time?  Lots of people think so,
> >including my sister, who, while she's pretty sharp, really mostly wants
> >it to be an appliance as well.
> >
> >Is this sort of question-talking annoying?  You bet.  :-)
> >
> >Stick with hardware-MPEG cards like the PVR-250, pick the right
> >VGA/NTSC-out card and distribution, and avoid the pinch-y chipsets on
> >motherboards, and you shouldn't have too much trouble.
> >
> >Cheers,
> >-- jra
> >
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >mythtv-users mailing list
> >mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> >http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
> >
> Wow,  Thanks for all the great and fast responses.
> 
> Several of you stressed the importance of the right hardware to make
> things go smoothly.  Here the PVR-250 was even mentioned.  However, I
> don't think I can use the PVR-250 because I don't think it can handle
> OTA HDTV.  And in the previous responses I don't think anybody mentioned
> using HDTV.  So maybe the first follow-up question should be, Are any of
> you using it successfully with HDTV?
> 
> Assuming the answer is yes, I would like to start specifying hardware.
> So maybe I should explain what I expect minimally from Myth.  I would
> like to setup _*ONE *_box that can record one HDTV show (probably 1080i
> or 720p) while being able to pause live HDTV (same resolution) for
> another show or watch a DVD.  I have seen some posts here that imply
> that MythTV/the hardware chokes under this kind of treasure.   Hopefully
> this is not the case for Myth and it is just bad hardware.  All of this
> needs to work with my Toshiba 62hm94 (in HD of course).
> 
> So based on what I minimally expect from Myth. Please help me spec the
> box.
> Minimal Processor speed?  Probably AMD (to cut down on heat and noise)?
> HD Tuner Card (I'll start with just one to get things working.)?
> Video Card?
> I don't know if a specific DVD drive matters, but if it does please
> recommend one?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Chris Lopeman
> 

Ok.. for what you are saying I would recommend
P4 2.4
512meg ram
2 pchdtv or air2pc cards (one for watching one for recording.)
Nvidia Geforce card (Make your own version preference. I'm using an FX
5700LE due to power consumption issues. Geforces are recommended for their
ability to output to hdtv and for onboard encoding to help lower cpu load.
Without a Geforce you will need a more powerfull cpu)
Sound blaster Audigy4 (for 7.1)
I would recommend SATA or SCSI hdd for data rates. It would help with drive
access speeds for watching/recording 2 streams at once. It might not be as
important for OTA as for ASTC over Cable.

If you also want to capture analog I would recommend a PVR-150/250, or 2 if
you ever intend to watch and record analog at the same time. Using a PVR-500
you would only need 1 card as it has 2 decoders and thus can perform as 2
cards. Althou the drivers are still being worked on and many report that
they get no sound on the second decoder. There is a supposed fix for it if
you search the list thou.

For reference, My system
P4 3.2E Prescott(overkill)
512meg ram
1 PVR-350(WASTE as I'm not using the TV Out, should have gone with a 250.
150/500 were not out at the time I built it. Would have done a 500 if they
were.)
1 PCHDTV-HD3000
Geforce FX 5700LE
FIC Condor Case/MoBo using Onboard audio
80Gig and 250Gig Maxtor SATA (80 is about 6g for / with the rest used for
/video and the 250 is all used for /record)

HDTV works great on it but not in Myth at this time. This is not the fault
of Myth but my cable provider. They do not send PSIP data so the auto-scan
detects the streams but can not tune the channels. I am still waiting on the
code to import from the PMT data. Would do it myself if I knew how to code.



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