[mythtv-users] New MythTV setup

[Jan Ophey]

David Wallace wrote:

>Hello List,
>  
>

Hi!

>I am getting ready to build a mythTV machine from a lot of extra parts I
>have around and would like some input on hardware and interfacing into
>my current AV system.
>
>I have an Athalon 1700 on an Abit KD7 raid motherboard with 256 mb ram.
>
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For use with a PVR-series card this should be enough...
But comercial flagging and trancoding need much horsepower, so a faster 
Prozessor is always nice, if you plan to transcode alot.
BTW: I would build this Box with 512MB RAM. You can never have enough RAM ;)

>1) should I consider getting 4 drives the same size and use the hardware
>raid in stripping mode?
>
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For Data-Security i would never use Striping or raid0
If you consider buying 4 Drives, i would suggest to use Linux 
Software-RAID5  & LVM

>2) I have a WinTV PVR 250 working for capture using ivtv 0.4.0. The
>hardware browser says it is a "Intermext Compression Inc iTVC16
>(CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder", is this good enough for MythTV?
>  
>
This should work fine with ivtv 4.0 & Myth. The PVR-Series has the great 
advantage, that the videostream coming out of the card is already MPG2, 
so your CPU just needs to store it to your HDD(s) without any encoding.

>3) The video card is a Matrox Millennium G400 AGP, the one that can use
>dual head, had it doing TV out under RedHat 9. Will it work well with
>MythTV?
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If you get TV-Ot working, you can give it a try. I read somewhere, that 
the Matrox Millenium G400 Series has an excellent TV-OUT.

>4) Sound. My current AV system has a Sony 5.1 amp with a MD (digital
>tape) input and output, like old cassette tape monitior recievers. The
>motherboard has  a VIA AC97 audio controller with a 5.1 fiber output
>which I think can be inputted to the Sony MD input. Is there another
>audio card I could add to capture 5.1 into MythTV. My AV source is
>DirecTV which provides 5.1 (if available) to the amp.
>
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Don't know about this... Maybe there will be problems with 
Audio/Video-Sync if you want to record the video with the PVR and the 
Sound as 5.1.
AFAIK, the PVR's cannot record 5.1
Also the PVR's have a 2sec-delay compared to watching the same content 
directly on a TV. This is the time needed to do the Hardware-MPG2 encoding.
Maybe someone else could give you more detailed information on this.

>I have been reading Jarod Wilson's Fedora 4 FAQ for mythTV which I find
>very helpful on the subject, but obviously can't address every hardware
>configuration possible, hence this posting. Thanks in advance to any
>that can help and make recommendations.
>
>Thanks, David
>
>  
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hth,
Jan