[mythtv] Help please!

Johann Klemmack mythtv-dev@snowman.net
Mon Jan 13 04:48:58 EST 2003


Derrick,
	First, become at least somewhat familiar with Linux.  Learn to use it for
most of your everyday tasks.  Most distributions will let you do web
browsing, e-mail, office productivity, and a lot of other things right out
of the box.  While the setup for MythTV is by far better than anything else
I've seen, and there are great install docs, not every installation goes
smoothly and you might need to tinker.  Anyway, it helps to understand
what's going on.  A decent site is http://www.linuxnewbie.org/.  For general
Linux help, try those forums.

	Second, noone can give you a concrete "this is the system to use"
definition.  Check out the really cool database that Mark Cooper put up for
what system components people are using
(http://www.goldfish.org/~mcooper/pvrhw/stats.html).  Read the archives
(http://www.gossamer-threads.com/archive/Misc_C2/MythTV_F10/) for what
people have said if you have questions about a specific piece of hardware.

	Overall, onboard audio (CMI8738) chips and the Sound Blaster Live! cards
have had good quality.  AMD processors in the >= 1700+ range give you great
performance for the best price.  Since you're using it as your exclusive TV
setup, then  you'll want a beefier proc than most b/c you'll want to
encode-decode at a higher resolution.  256Ram, 80GB harddrive, and Hauppage
WinTV (or ATi's TV Wonder) and a fairly recent graphics card (most people
like Matrox G200 or a GeForce2/4) round out the core setup.  For remote,
just buy and IRman or similar package (see "Commercially available links on
www.lirc.org), unless you like/are good at soldering.

	Note that all the above is just my opinion - and I'd stick it in a Shuttle
Online microPC, probably the SK41G
(http://www.shuttleonline.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=155) (btw, anyone done this
on a Redhat/Debian system?  How'd it work?) and you can have the whole
system in a small, fairly quiet box for $700.

	Of course, you could start small like I did - I got a new HD and TV card
first, tried it out on my desktop box, then bought the rest when I knew I
could get the system to wrok and could afford it.

Good luck, happy MythTVing, and we'll be here if you have questions!


(Dang it!  And just as I'm about to post, John's reply to this thread just
came through.  Oh well, since I spent the time on it, might as well throw
this out to everyone as well.  Grrrr!)

Johann


-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-dev-admin@snowman.net [mailto:mythtv-dev-admin@snowman.net]On
Behalf Of Derrick Rademaker
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 10:21 PM
To: mythtv-dev@snowman.net
Subject: [mythtv] Help please!


I have never used linux before in my life,  I would like to create a new pc
exlusively for myth tv and pvr for my television system

What would you recommend for the best idea system to have it used only for
this and using a remote control with the entertainment system

I am on a budget so I need to keep cost low

Thank you for all your help

Derrick




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