[mythtv-users] two and one

Chris Petersen lists at forevermore.net
Tue May 13 19:12:29 EDT 2003


> 1) I'm curious as to what brings people to try out MythTV.  Is it the geeky
> pleasure of building something oneself?  Is it wanting to be independent
> from TiVo's feature control or fate?  Is it cost?  Is it the extra features
> that one can't get from the commercial PVRs out there?

like many others, I initially wanted one because I don't trust the
financial stability of replaytv (I didn't want a tivo because it doesn't
do broadband, and I don't want to give up my phone line so the box can
call in and get program listings).  Plus, I wanted something that would
play my music (much of it in ogg/vorbis format).

> Spec'ing out a Athlon/shuttle/WinTV-PVR/IR box, I can't quite seem to make
> it cost less than a TiVo + a year's service, so I'm trying to figure out
> why it's still really alluring to me to try building one.  Figured asking
> why it's alluring to other people might help illustrate it.  

my setup:

$165 - Asus Pundit
$170 - p4 2.5Ghz (I started with a 2.0 celeron, but wanted more speed)
$130 - Seagate 120Gig 7200.7 drive (quietest on the market)
$70  - 512Mb RAM

Granted, I paid wholesale since I work for a systems integrator (we
build rackmount machines), but the prices are pretty close to retail
since we tend to get higher quality gear than is really necessary (I
just grabbed what we had on-hand).  For info about the Pundit (of which
I'm a huge fan now), check out some of the list archives from the past
week or so.

My TV card is a PCTV Pro I picked up a year or so ago for $5 after
rebate.  I plan to get something better at some point, though.

> 2) What have people's experience been with the amount of time it takes to
> go from "Machine assembled and hard drive blank" to "Machine running mythtv
> reliably, recording, scheduling, playing back"?  Anyone had a very short or
> very long breaking-in period, i.e. fixing minor audio/video glitches,
> getting channel-changes happening reliably, etc?  Anyone on the list have a
> non-technical family member who's taken to mythtv easily?

once I bit the bullet and grabbed the rpm's, installing myth was REALLY
easy (about 5 minutes).  getting my vid card working was a little more
difficult, but that's because I'm working with really new hardware and
there just isn't that much info out there about it.

> 3) the technical question: I think the Shuttle cases are gorgeous little
> boxes, and am thinking of one as an all-in-one mythtv box.  Anyone had
> experience, good or bad, with using the onboard audio and s-video from
> shuttle in conjunction with mythtv?  (Specifically, audio: Realtek ALC650,
> video: VIA Savage8)  If I could get away with just putting a hauppage card
> in there and not needing a separate gfx or sound board, the machine begins
> to look nice and lean (and more importantly, cooler and cheaper).

can't say much here.  We've built a few shuttles for clients, and I can
say that the p4 ones are pretty quiet (though the pundit is quieter) -
don't have experience with their athlon stuff, but athlons in general
run hotter and thus require more active cooling.

-Chris



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