[mythtv-users] First time MythTV project questions?

[Keith C]

Comments in-line :

On Fri, 2003-09-19 at 09:26, craigpj at comcast.net wrote:
> I am going to start my first MythTV project and have a few general questions
> before i get started.  I have been following the MythTV project for about a
> month now and have read all the docs and browsed through the archives and
> mailing list.  I plan on installing MythTV on my current Linux system to test
> out the install and make sure I know how everything works.  My current "test"
> system will be an Athlon 850mhz, 416mb PC100 RAM, GeForce2 MX 400 w/ TV-Out. 
> Here are my questions:
>  
Pretty wimpy specs, but read on...

> (1)  It seems to me that the PVR-250 is the capture card to go with, and to take
> advantage of the ivtv drivers to use the hardware encoding and save CPU usage. 
> Is this correct?
That's what I would recommend.  And it would be the only way to capture
with that wimpy Athlon.
>  
> (2)  I have viewed through all docs/archives and I am a little confused, as I
> seem to find "conflicting reports" on this item:  can I just simply watch live
> TV with MythTV without actually recording the program?  Like if I dont have
> anything scheduled to record, can I just sit down, turn on my TV and watch a
> program without recording it?? or do I have to record everything I watch, and
> then delete it afterwards if I dont want it?
>  
You don't have to tell it to record to watch Live TV.  It is actually
buffering (sort of recording) the program in a ringbuffer so that you
can pause and resume watching. It causes a little delay to start the
buffering, so changing channels isn't instantaneous, but its worth it
for pause capability.  The ringbuffer is automatically cleared when you
change channels or stop watching Live TV.

> (3)  If I want to watch one program while I am recording another one on a
> different station will I need to have 2 capture cards?  One to watch liveTV and
> the other to record?  or can I do it all with one card?  I assume I need 2
> cards.  and if I do need 2 cards how does that work?  do I just buy a coax cable
> splitter for my cable input so I can input into both cards??
Yes, you'll need 2.  Myth handles 2 cards for you just fine.  Yes,
you'll need a splitter.  Or you could go the cheap route and split the
cable to the one PVR-250 and your TV directly.  You could watch the
direct feed to the TV while Myth does it's recording.  Of course, then
you have no pause capability.
>  
> (4)  What would the best route performance-wise be for me to go as far as
> hardware? For motherboards should I go with the EPIA-M10k Nehemiah with all its
> built-in functionality or should I go with another, less expensive board where I
> can add my own processor, etc...?  And as far as the capture card goes, is the
> PVR-250 my best bet??  a GeForce4 card for graphics??  also what speed processor
> and how much RAM will I need at a minimum for good performance?  as in no
> dropped frames, smooth playback of files and DVD's.
Nehemiah seems pricey to me.  But I always prefer building my own stuff
(except my Mac of course).  The PVR-250 is pretty impressive, and the
GeForce 4 mx series is very popular for TV Out.  There are rumors of
support for the TV Out on the PVR-350, which might make that card much
more attractive, but no solid confirmation yet.  RAM : I prefer 512 MB,
but Myth can get by with 256 MB. Processor : 2 Ghz processors (or 2000+
in the Athlon world) are pretty cheap these days and are more than
capable of handling the load (especially with PVR-x50's).

Playback of DVD's : you might not be 100% thrilled with the quality of
output of S-Video if you are used to higher quality from a DVD player
with component out.  The results of other discussions here recommend an
Audio Authority VGA to Component converter.  This can be painful to get
working, but has much better quality output than S-Video.

>  
> I think that is basically all.  Thanks for the help in advance.  I am really
> looking forward to beginning this project and contributing to the future of MythTV.

Glad to have you aboard.  I'm new myself, so am trying to help by
answering the newbie questions I had that others are now asking.

Keith C