[mythtv-users] Personal Choices

[Jarod C. Wilson]

On Dec 14, 2003, at 03:45, Myth Man wrote:

> Thanx for the input, Jarod.

No problem.

> Looking at the hardware (tuners) themselves.  What would you
> recommend?  Both my TVs are HD ready, so I want to get HD if possible.

The only HD tuner out there with Linux drivers (so far as I know) is 
the pcHDTV. I've got one myself.

> I am assuming that the tuners is all I need for the backend.
> Yea, I know what happens when ya make an assumption. Ya make
> an ass out of u and umption.  :)

But your assumption is actually correct. :)

> I read the hardware guides, but was a tad cornfused about what
> was for the front end or the back end.

Again, you're correct, tuners go in the backend. But you can also have 
tuners in multiple backends, and frontends running on systems with or 
without local backends... Yeah, it can be a tad confusing! ;)

My production system hooked to my TV is the master backend and primary 
frontend, and coincidentally, is also hooked to a High-Definition TV 
(via a VGA to Component Video adapter).

> As I said earlier, I plan on using 2 XBOXs on my LAN as the front ends
> for the TVS in question.

Hrm... The X-Box doesn't have anywhere near enough power to decode and 
display a High-Definition stream. It's just fine for standard-def TV, 
but its no-go for HD. I think you may need to go back to the drawing 
board for a spell...

I think a bare minimum system to be able to play back a High-Def stream 
is around 1.8GHz with hardware-assistance (from a GF4MX or FX series 
card), but even that is less than perfect. One of the pcHDTV gurus on 
the list recommends a bare minimum of a 2.6GHz system, but preferably a 
3.0GHz P4 w/HyperThreading. (For reference, the X-Box has a paltry 
733MHz processor).

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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