[mythtv-users] looking for thoughts on this hardware spec

[Blues Guy]

--- Burke Gillespie <kurbe at myrealbox.com> wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> Please forgive me if this has been answered before
> or if this is not the correct forum for this type of
> question. I have looked through the archives for an
> answer and I have read all the documentation I can
> find, but I'm still not clear about one thing.
> 
> I want to set up a myth frontend/backend all in one
> box on the least amount of harware I can get away
> with. I'm looking at an Acer Pundit (
>
http://usa.asus.com/products/desktop/pundit/overview.HTM
> ) with maybe a Celeron 1.8 (400 FSB) with a large
> 7200 rpm drive.
> 
> I want this to be a standalone box. I don't want to
> run a seperate backend.
> 
> My quetion is this:
> If I want to view live TV on the monitor, not a tv,
> do I need the decoding power of the PVR-350 on this
> low end machine? Is the hardware decoding only to
> send out to the TV and could I get away with a
> PVR-250 if I will only be using a computer monitor?
> 

The difference between the 250 and 350 has been
discussed many times on this list, but here we go
again :-)  The 250 has an MPEG-2 hardware encoder. 
The 350 has an MPEG-2 hardware encoder/decoder.  If
you're only watching TV on a monitor, and you aren't
hoping for the 350's FM radio feature in the future,
then don't waste money on the 350.  Get a 250.  I've
got a Pundit which originally had two 250'a in it, and
while they are a VERY tight fit, they work great. 
I've since upgraded to the 350, because I use it on a
TV, and the pundit's TV out isn't properly interlaced,
forcing you to use Myth's software de-interlacing, and
the net result is more or less the loss of half the
data. (i.e. poor quality!)

> Is this enough machine to run both the backend and
> frontend on and watch live TV while recording in the
> background? I may add a second card. The second card
> would probably be a hardware encoding card as well
> such as a pvr-x50.
> 

It's more than enough.  I use a 2.0 GHz celeron in my
machine, simply because I wanted the smaller die size
(.13 micron) and thus lower heat (i.e. less fans =
less noise), but it's way overkill.  When I was using
the 250's (i.e. no hardware assist), I was only using
20% CPU, when recording two shows and watching a third
that was pre-recorded.  I could be crunching SETI
packets at nice 19 and get a few more units in if I
wanted to :-)  Make sure you put in 512MB though,
256MB is too tight.



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