[mythtv-users] Hardware explanations
Adam Biskobing
tv at badmoon.com
Tue Feb 17 17:58:00 EST 2004
You'll want to use either a serial cable (if your cable box supports it)
or an IR blaster, in combination with a channel changing script.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Vincent
> K. Britton
> Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 4:41 PM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] Hardware explanations
>
>
> Sorry about the GHz thing. When I read the How-To it stated
> that you need about 1 GHz per card to encode. Obviously this
> wouldn't be the case with the PVR250's as it has the onboard encoders!
>
> An additional question that I came up with is how to control
> your digital cable box for recording? I have many channels
> that are only available with digital cable. I know you would
> have to use the component or SVideo connections to record
> from this source but does how does one turn it on and change
> the channel with mythtv? Also does recording from these
> sources utilize the onboard encoder of the PVR250?
>
> Thanks again for you guidance!
> Vince
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Torsten Schenkel [mailto:mythtv at isl.mach.uni-karlsruhe.de]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 2:40 PM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Hardware explanations
>
> Am Di, den 17.02.2004 schrieb Vincent K. Britton um 22:31:
>
> > 1) I plan on getting 3 or 4- PVR350ys or PVR250ys cards as the
> > Hauppauge seem to be the most supported by myth. The question that
> > remains is that in reviewing the Specifications Chart on
> the Hauppauge
> > web site it appears that the only difference between the 2 cards is
> > that the 350 has a MPEG2 Decoder when the machine they are
> installed
> > in doesnyt directly display any video?
>
> Well, then you won't be able to use the decoder :-)
> There's an FM tuner on the 350 which will most likely be
> supported in the future, so if you plan to listen to radio,
> you might want one of them. The rest can be 250s without any
> sacrifce whatsoever.
>
> > 2) With 4 PVR#50ys do I need to upgrade to a dual CPU machine?
>
> What's this GHz-mania about? With 4 pvrx50 you'll need about
> 1GHz worth of Intel/AMD cpu cycles. It's all i/o, the card is
> doing the work. Your chipset has to be supported, that's all.
>
> > 3) I also intend to get a pcHDTV card for HD recording. Will
> > programs that I record with that card in HD play on my Standard
> > Definition TV connected to a different front end machine?
>
> Don't know about that, I read somewhere ATSC was < 20Mbit, so
> no problem on TP100.
>
> > 4) Speaking of the front end machine I have found the XBOX Mod
> > that makes it into a front end machine. I would love to
> utilize the
> > inexpensive hardware of an XBOX for my front end units.
> Does anyone
> > have experience running this? I get the impression that it
> will work
> > fine for Standard Definitions but not High Definition even
> though the
> > XBOX is capable or HD out. User experiences would be greatly
> > appreciated!
>
> With pvrx50s you'll need the cpu cycles on the frontend more
> than on the backend. An Xbox is reported to work fine for
> standard TV, and while it can display HD resolutions, I doubt
> it's up to the decoding task.
>
> > 5) Should the XBOX front end be more trouble then it
> is worth, I
> > would be interested in hearing experiences or recommendations
> > regarding Minimyth on the Via EPIA M systems. Is this little gut
> > capable of HD Output at 1080i?
>
> Same as the Xbox, the Epia has H/W mpeg2 support, so this may
> help, no idea though.
>
> For HDTV you might want to put that 3GHz processor into the frontend.
>
> > 6) What are the network bandwidth requirements for
> viewing? Does
> > the backend server Stream to the front end units are the front end
> > units caching?
>
> Capture bandwith plus tcp/ip overhead, yes and presumably yes.
>
> > Additionally I would like to know if any of the following
> assumptions
> > are incorrect
> >
> > 1) PIP (Picture in Picture) is built in to the myth application
> > and is independent from the Televisions PIP. Availability is
> > dependant on the number of tuner cards or sources on the backend
> > server.
>
> Yes
>
> > 2) Myth uses its own GUI independent from GNOME or KDE.
> > Therefore I wouldnyt be able to load another application to access
> > streaming audio or anything.
>
> Yes, but you're free to use whatever you want to stream,
> watch or listen, it still is a linux system. It won't be
> integrated in myth, but I can watch recordings on my
> workstation using mythweb and mplayer.
>
> Torsten
> --
> Walkthrough: MythTV on Epia with PVR350 using Debian:
http://www-isl.mach.uni-karlsruhe.de/~hi93/myth/mythtv_debian_epia_pvr35
0_walkthrough
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