[mythtv-users] Just built MythTV, beginner questions

[maarten]

Hi,

Forgive me for some MythTV-newbie questions.

First and foremost, I did not find such info in the documentation pages but if 
anyone can point me to more additional info I'd be grateful.

I just built and compiled mythtv on some older hardware I had laying around, 
to see if I could get it working.  It works now (after some ugly problems), 
so I'm planning to go out and buy some much faster hardware.  But...

During testing I had some troubles, and they relate to the fact that this old 
hardware seems severely underpowered.  So much so that when I select "watch 
TV" to check my card's output for a preview, the picture lags at least 
several seconds (upto 10 seconds) to what I'm feeding it.

The hardware is:  Celeron 500 MHz, 256MB, 8G hdd. Two Miro PCTV cards.
Is the slowness, as described, to be expected with this hardware ?
(yes, DMA is on)

I have not had the cards' tuner set to the channels yet, since I don't know 
how to go about that in a smart manner.  Do you have to do that with Xawtv 
and record the settings used there for mythtv ?
I have an old but okay listing somewhere but it's Kwintv format, I have to 
figure out how to translate.  Is there a quicker way than either of these ?
(I'm in holland, so xmltv doesn't take care of this, I reckon)

How can one select whether the TV- or the composite input is selected ?  I did 
some trials with a composite signal since that would be sharp and clear in 
contrast to the un-tuned TV signals. I played around with the video sources 
and connectors and whatnot but I get confused by it...
However, I managed to make one recording off the composite signal (straight 
off DVD), and the quality is very disappointing (real blocky, like a jpeg 
saved at Q=20, or even less). So, I have a lot of tuning to do... 
Some questions regarding that:
What is 'better' to use, rtjpeg or mpeg4 ? I also notice mpeg2 in some menus, 
but there is no option to select mpeg2 in the other [encoding] menus ?
Does it matter whether I leave the resolution at 480x480 (default) or better 
at 1/2 PAL 384x288 (current setting) for my system ?
Where do you select what resolution settings (default,live-tv,low-q,high-q) 
gets used when recording ? I did not see (or read) that anywhere.

Onto some hardware questions again,
Do you reckon I should buy a PVR250, or it an AMD 2600+ well capable of using 
the two plain old PCTV cards ? (see also next question)

I get the impression the TV picture quality is rather bad (I don't mean 
blockyness but interference and 'snow'). Is that an often-heard symptom of 
the used cheap cards, or should I investigate some sort of shielding ?
This would be good to know in advance; if a PVR250 gives a better overall 
picture then I should maybe reconsider the athlon altogether and buy a PVR250 
instead (so I can keep using this hardware). 

TIA,
Maarten

-- 
Yes of course I'm sure it's the red cable. I guarante[^%!/+)F#0c|'NO CARRIER