[mythtv-users] Absolute newbie stumped

[stefan_jones at comcast.net]

Comments embedded 

----- "Tom" <listmail at athenet.net> wrote: 
> From: "Tom" <listmail at athenet.net> 
> To: "MythTV Listserve" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org> 
> Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 3:48:52 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
> Subject: [mythtv-users] Absolute newbie stumped 

> I've been reading the archives at Gossamer and poking all over the web for 
> enough info to just get started with MythTV. I've been at this for two 
> months. All I know so far is that that I think I want two ATSC tuner cards 
> and I'm thinking of starting with MythDora, since I have some passing 
> familiarity with FC. 

That's what I did. Distributions are a personal choice, but I found Mythbuntu a little too confining. The Mythdora (updated version is now part of the MythTV wiki) write up was just at my level. 

> l'll probably begin with one capture card. Comments I've read on 
> MythTVtalk.com seem to indicate that dual capture cards are overpriced 
> compared to a pair of single cards. Dunno if that's really true. 

Can't say. A few minutes browsing and comparing at Newegg would help answer the question. They have a category for tuner and tv cards. 

Here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380047%201685342847&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&Order=RATING 

If you go for two cards, just be sure you have the available slots. Newer motherboards are awfully skimpy. 

> I need to decide what capture cards I want so I know what bus they plug 
> into so I can start looking for a machine or motherboard & cpu combo. 

There are cards available for PCI and PCI-Express x1. 

> I need to record OTA (ATSC). No cable or satellite in the cards for the 
> present. 

ATSC cards work for any of those, so you're covered any way you go. 

> I want to record SD for now, but leave the way open for HD. Playback (for 
> now) will be s-video, but there's a HDMI equipped television in my future. 
> Not next week, mind you. But some day. 

Capture from an ATSC stream is incredibly easy, processor-load speaking. The tuner sucks in the signal and writes the transport stream to disk. My old 1.8 GHz P4 mythbox handled an HD capture session just fine. Couldn't PLAY HD though! 

You will want to carefully choose your video card. You want a card with the outputs you need now and will need down the road. Preferably WITHOUT a fan. It doesn't have to be a rip-roaring gaming card with gobs of memory, but if you get an Nvidia card of a certain model or better you can offload HD decoding from the CPU, meaning you can get a cheaper, smaller, quieter processor. Search the archive of this mailing list for VDPAU. 

> I also know that software decoding is probably not the way to go; getting a 
> capture card with hardware to offload that process from my CPU(s) is 
> probably smart. 

Any good card will do this. In any case, on-baord encodeing was more of a concern for analog reception. See above. 

> I see here someone using a DViCO FusionHDTV7 Dual Express card. Doesn't 
> look like it was painless, but he apparently got it to play. I was told at 
> one point, "just get a Hauppage 300" or some such thing, but I can't find 
> those for sale new with a warranty. Poking around their site at e.g. 
> http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_internal.html 
> shows me a list of cards and few hints about which if any would play nice 
> for MythTV. Most lists of cards that people are using seem to date from 
> 2005 or earlier, and I don't know who to believe 

Did you check the MythTV wiki? I assume folks are still updating it with their configurations. 

> I go back & forth on the subject of front-end machine in the same box as 
> the back-end, or two separate machines. 

If you're starting out, stick with a combined machine. 

> So could someone point me at a recent list of cards known to perform well 
> with Myth, with reasonably low extra hacking effort required? 

Happague is well supported, as is pcHDTV. Plug them and go. 

The Happague 1600 series has gotten lots of great comments on NewEgg, and on this list as well. It is a hybrid (analog and ATSC/QAM) than can handle two recordings . . . but I don't know if it can handle two digital sessions at once. If it can, that might be one to shoot for. 


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