[mythtv-users] What would be the best route to go?

Mark Dobossy mdobossy at Princeton.EDU
Tue Sep 16 22:50:42 EDT 2003


First off, I am new to the list, and MythTV.  After seeing the site, 
and drooling over it for several weeks, I think I am ready to make the 
plunge.  I have spec'd out a few boxes, and have narrowed it down to 
two possibilities:

I currently have an Athlon 1.1ghz, w/512mb RAM. This machine is my 
internet gateway for the house, as well as my web/database server. I 
also do quite a bit of computing for my grad school research, and I use 
this machine to do some processing. This machine is running Mandrake 
9.0.

I am also planning on purchasing a new computer- something much more up 
to date, to set up a HTPC system with. The way I see it, I have 2 
choices-

1) Leave the current router/server as is, and make no changes to it. 
Then, get a modest system for MythTV- say an Athlon XP 2400, 512mb ram, 
160gb hard drive, Win-PVR-250 tuner, GF4MX440 64 meg video card, and 
wrap it up with a DVD drive, in a nice looking case. Then just put this 
machine in the HT, and have it be a stand-alone unit.

2) Purchase a more powerful system- say a P4 2.8, 1gb RAM, 160gb HD, 
etc.. As well as the PVR-250. Replace the current router/web server 
(trust me, this thing isnt under a huge load or anything) with the new 
P4 system. This system would then also be the MythTV backend- have the 
tuner card, and be interfaced with the DirecTV reciever. I could then 
take the weaker Athlon system, and turn it into the slave machine, 
running the MythTV frontend, and have it hooked up to the HT. This way, 
I figure I could use some of the computing power of the P4 2.8 when 
necessary, and also have a HTPC setup.

I suppose I could also do option 1, with the P4 2.8, but that seems WAY 
overkill for a stand-alone PVR system.

Any thoughts on which route would be better?

-Mark Dobossy



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