[mythtv-users] MoBo+PVR150 or 350?

Sim simon.hampton at freebel.net
Mon Nov 22 19:40:46 UTC 2004


Hi,
I'm trying to work out what to build into a budget (except for cool, quiet 
case) PVR box / music player / photo presenter and possibly DVD player, and I 
have some questions. 

For the video part I am simply aiming to replace my old VHS and dont think I 
need very advanced features.

If I get a motherboard with a TV-Out, will an Athlon 1800+ be sufficient for 
decoding, so that I could just buy a PVR150 for encoding?

Alternatively do I need a video card (or at least one with TV out) if I get a 
PVR350?  I thought I read that the 350 is rather limited for displaying 
anything but decoded MPEG2 streams - combination of the itv driver's 
limitations and the need to run X through the 350's framebuffer (and I admit 
I'm not quite sure what I'm writing here).

In practice the integrated video cards are so cheap that the first option 
looks like the money saver, but I may have overlooked something.

I was thinking of building on top of Mandrake 10.1, but I see that most of the 
posts refer to Fedora.  Should that influence my choice?

As for the case, what do you recommend?  I think a small form factor is 
necessary.  Frankly the Asus Digimatrix looks the most like consumer 
electronics and will probably fit best with our TV furniture, but I like the 
look of Shuttles, and could be persuaded for anything else I can get in 
Belgium.

Simon


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list