[mythtv-users] Straighten me out here?

[Christopher Flynn]

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 20:01:33 +0200, j2 <spamfilter2 at mupp.net> wrote:
> 1. I have a Celeron 2.4Ghz, 256MB, and a 60GB disk 
Will work, I initially had a system with 256MB RAM and had no
problems. 60GB is small and will fill up quickly but what I did was
use a 40GB disk for the base system and music and then threw in a
200GB drive for video. I noticed later you have a 900GB system which
if it's running linux, you could always use NTFS for the video.

> 2. I am pondering purchasing a Hauppage WinTV PVR-350
PVR-350 is a good choice if you aren't planning on getting a video
card but beware, it will probably max out your CPU if you try and play
anything other than mpeg2 video. (The tv it captures is mpeg2) If this
is a concern, get a PVR-250 and a video card.
 
> 3. Assemble it all into a realtively quite chassi 
My personal recommendation is the Ahanix D5 though the fans on the
case are a little louder than I'd like. (The PSU is super quiet) At
some point I'll probably replace them.

> 4. Get LIRC (or similar) working to control my SetTopBox. 
lirc works well and integrates well with mythtv. The IR reciever that
comes with the PVR-250/350 works well. I got the PVR-250MCE which
doesn't have one and built a serial IR reciever for ~$10.
   
> So, i reckon that would be a pretty decent MythTV box? 
>   
> But, do i still need a VGA card in the system, or can the 350's video out
> work for this as well? 
>From what I understand (I don't have a PVR-350), you can do everything
from the PVR-350. However having a video card for the initial setup
may be handy. Of course for this you could always borrow one from one
of your other computers. It doesn't need to be anything special since
it's just to be used for the install. Then once it's up and running
you can take it out and just use the PVR-350. If you went with the
PVR-250, you will need a video card, preferably with TV Out.

> Also, is there any front end to be able to stream video to stream to a
> Windows client? 
There are some people working on a windows frontend. Last I checked it
wasn't very stable yet. Another option is to use knoppmyth which you
can boot and run the frontend off the cd. Therefore you can use a
windows computer because nothing gets installed for the frontend.

> Also, platform. I am a Debian user by heart, but for this project, i want
> zero hassle, and since it will be a dedicated system, i'll consider any
> distro, as long as it works nicely with MythTV. 
I am a debian user by heart as well and I am running Debian with
little problems. The problems I had weren't with mythtv but rather
trying to get the ivtv drivers working with my PVR-250MCE card. (It's
a newer card and requires Chris kennedy's patched ivtv) There are some
debian packages that you can install but if you want lirc or the lcd
stuff, at least one of them weren't compiled in so I ended up just
compiling everything from source. (not too hard)

Knoppmyth is a distro based on knoppix (which is based on debian)
which allows you to boot to a cd and not install anything. For
knoppmyth to work as a backend it needs to be installed on the hard
drive though. Knoppmyth is supposed to be the easiest to install but I
had some issues because of my PVR-250MCE card. I found out later that
there is a workaround but I already had debian up and running so I
just went with that.

The other popular choice is Fedora Core because there is a tutorial
based around it. I would recommend you go with whatever you are used
to.
-Chris
-- 
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Gandhi