[mythtv-users] Intro & question

[Chad]

> A bit about my current setup:
> Athlon XP 1500+
> 768MB RAM
> 80GB IDE HDD (2 x 40GB actually with one dedicated to MythTV)
> KWorld TV878RF-PRO tuner card
> NVidia GeForce 3 video card
> Ubuntu 6.06
> MythTV 0.19

I agree with Ivan mostly, but I think you might be able to try it in this order:
Up the storage, definitely up the storage.  Assuming you are going to
be driving that projector at it's native res (of 1280x720) with actual
HD content, you'll definitely want more storage.  I'm at ~750GB and
eyeballing about another 1TB or so...
then;
Upgrade the Video to a 5200 or 6200
 You *might* be able to squeeze enough out of your existing specs
other than these 2 changes.  Otherwise, you are probably looking at
upgrading to a newer board/cpu, et al (64bit in 32bit is probably the
current recommendation).

> I have Time Warner Digital Cable (a Pioneer BD-V1100 box) and hadn't
> planned on doing anything higher than 480p stuff with my setup but I
> just bit the bullet on a 1280x720 (720p) native projector.  I'm
> putting a home theater in my basement I want to setup my system as a
> HTPC (it's a mid-tower case so it'll be in a separate area off to the
> side from my actual HT room).

With deinterlacing the 1080i streams and such, you *might* actually
need to upgrade the CPU/mobo anyway; but my guess is it's worth the
~35 bucks to get the Nvidia 5200 and try it out.  Beside the 'look' of
the case, the XP series CPU's run hot, so be ready to splurge on some
relatively expensive fans that actually cool while still being quiet
(if you haven't already).

> So, a few questions:
> 1. My projector is an InFocus with the proprietary M1 connection.  I
> can get a 25' DVI-to-M1 cable to go straight from my GeForce card into
> the projector and hopefully drive it natively at 1280x720.  Question
> is: is this a good way to do it? I know standard SD channels aren't at
> that resolution but figure the combination of MythTV and the video
> card driver will handle the upscale better than just sending the
> projector the SD signal and letting it upscale the image.  I also
> figure for MythDVD and such, it'll also upscale and all that jazz
> (again, not sure if it's MythTV or the video card driver that'll
> handle that upscaling thing).

Yeah, probably a good way to do it.  You may find that your projector
will scale *any* res you send it, so sending it the native res is
probably the best to keep scaling minimized (scale once not 8 times).
So scaling it at the Video cards output res is probably the best
option, though some may have other ideas.  MythDVD (assuming you use
mplayer and not xine, the internal player, vlc or whatever other DVD
player might be used) should be scaling to full screen, so yeah,
scaling is done before your projector gets it in that case as well.

> 2. I obviously do not have any capability of receiving HD signal right
> now.  So I need to get an HD card or call up my TW Cable and upgrade
> or both.  As for the HD card, I know the pcHDTV cards are considered
> wonderful but does anybody have any experience with the KWorld ATSC
> 110 card?  Actually, I see I can get the KWorld ATSC 110+MCE-200 combo
> for less than a pcHDTV 5500 card.  Does anybody know if the MCE-200
> card will work w/ MythTV and if I can pipe HD video from the ATSC 110
> card to it to use its onboard MPEG-2 encoder?  It appears the only
> option for HD cards w/ built in MPEG encoder chips are in the > $2,000
> range.

Personally, I looked at most of my other options, and went with the
pcHDTV option.  I'm semi biased because they make their cards *for*
Linux, which in turn makes me a bit lazier because I don't have to
hunt down and figure out which drivers are making it work, IT'S
drivers make IT work.  Another reason I chose this route is because of
it's support forum; easy to get help from the manufacturers own
website; amazing.  (Nope, I don't work for em, but I definitely love
their cards and business "model".)  As noted by Ivan, the HD "tuner"
cards are **not** capture cards.  They accept and dump a signal on
your HD, that's it.  So the signal sent by your cable provider may or
may not be encrypted, it's not decrypted/encoded by the card, so it's
up to your provider on how they play the game.  Also, in my
experience, QAM is not as easy to get working as OTA is.  Using an
external antenna (rabbit ears work for some people, I was fortunate
enough to have a rooftop antenna in my attic that works great) you can
get a lot of HD programming that is unencrypted just floating around
in the air.  You won't get HBO-HD though, but this is really not an
option for most people anyway since even the firewire will encrypted
HBO-HD, and the only way to get it is to downgrade it's signal into
something like a PVR-500's input (max capture is 720x480).

> 3. Should I upgrade to a newer video card?  The GeForce 3 has the
> necessary bits to support XvMC as I understand it...does upgrading it
> really get me much?  Maybe an HDMI port?  Would it be better to get
> that and then buy the HDMI-to-M1 cable for the InFocus projectors?

I think so, though you can certainly give a go at what you've got and
decide for yourself.  I actually don't think the GF3 works with the
Linux Nvidia drivers to output XvMC but I could be dead wrong.  I
don't think you'll find and HDMI output on a decently priced
videocard; if any.  HDMI (my understanding anyway) is basically
Digital Coax and DVI in 1 small cable.  In this case, a videocard does
have DVI out and can be combined with a DVI-HDMI dongle.

> That's enough for now.

Good Luck, the MythTV mailing list is archived on Gossamer Threads,
they are searchable and make for a great reference:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/

-Chad

-- 
Prebuilt HDTV capable systems at reasonable prices:
http://www.pauselivetv.com