[mythtv-users] Building A MythTV Box

Mon Apr 11 04:51:40 UTC 2005

You might find this link helpful in deciding what hardware and casing to 
use. It also discusses software and has a few sections on mythtv, but 
overall a great article about today's options with HTPC's

http://www.2cpu.com/articles/113_1.html

-Jonathan

Galen wrote:

> Well, let me first state that I am an extremely curious person, but a 
> complete newbie when it comes to MythTV. I'm looking to build myself a 
> MythTV box, and I'm hoping to gather input and assistance from this 
> list. In particular, I want to hop in before July 2005 and the dreaded 
> U.S. broadcast flag! Please feel free to respond to just portions of 
> this email, as I know various people have different areas of expertise 
> and limited amounts of time.
>
> I have been most heavily involved in Mac OS X, PHP, MySQL, Apache, etc 
> professional over the past few years, and I'm not afraid of compiling 
> software myself. But I don't derive any particular pleasure from it, 
> either! I have had a growing interest in HDTV, and have recompiled VLC 
> to allow me to view raw MPEG2 transport stream via OpenGL acceleration 
> on my 1.33 GHz OS X PowerBook G4. (OS X's built-in YUV->RBG 
> performance SUCKS!!!) I have a good understanding of *nix basics - 
> permissions, compiling, file systems, etc. I'm not stupid in this 
> department by any means and I'm extremely willing to learn what is 
> needed. But, I have not been administrating or setting up Linux 
> systems anytime recently, so much of the very specific hardware/driver 
> stuff is foreign.
>
> Over the past several months, I've taken a nearly complete break from 
> television. It has given me time to think about it. I'm getting ready 
> to bring it back, but on my terms. That means HDTV and PVR. I've been 
> toying with HDTV enough to understand the format and qualities, 
> including working with a number of raw transport streams on my OS X 
> PowerBook. I've toyed with transcoding it, and I'm quite familar with 
> video codecs and playback software.
>
> I'm basically wanting to build myself a single, self-contained 
> Linux-based HDTV PVR box at the moment, without spending too 
> excessively much. The sole purpose will be HDTV PVR functions, and I 
> am planning to at least start with only one tuner card. (Hence I can 
> only record or view one channel at a time). I'm going to discuss what 
> I am understanding and my plans, so please correct me if I'm wrong 
> about anything or you feel you can provide additional comments.
>
> For the basic equipment, I need a basic but solid PC. I do not have 
> one that will suffice, nor do I have much equipment that would be used 
> within one, so I will be purchasing nearly everything. For HDTV, I 
> think we're talking about a 3 GHz P4 processor. What AMD processor 
> would be equivalent? What would be the advantages/disadvantages to 
> more or less CPU? Are there specific motherboard options highly 
> recommended? How much RAM is suitable/optimal - 256 MB? 512 MB? Cost 
> is very important to me, but not the only factor.
>
> I'm not a noise-nazi, but keeping this system reasonably quiet and on 
> the more compact end of things would be preferable, if there are any 
> reasonable yet inexpensive choices I can make in selecting the 
> equipment, practical advice would be welcome.
>
> I obviously also need an HDTV tuner card. It appears my options are 
> the pcHDTV 3000 and the Air2PC-ATSC-PCI. The prices and features 
> appear to be quite similar. Can anybody describe any differences 
> between the two? Any significant difference in RF performance? 
> Compatibility? MythTV support?
>
> Regarding storage devices, it seems any modern hard drive should be 
> able to handle HDTV raw streams (20 Mb/s) without too much trouble, 
> and I will only have one tuner. Even my little 2.5" 60 GB 4200 RM 
> laptop hard drive can handle it. Clearly, the limiting factor will be 
> capacity, not performance, it seems. I have been pondering producing a 
> RAID (probably software-based, RAID5 if possible) on here and perhaps 
> using this machine for some light home file server functions. Anybody 
> have experience with RAIDs and MythTV?
>
> Once the content is tuned in and everything, I need to output it. For 
> the video card, my understanding is that NVidia may be preferable 
> because of better hardware acceleration under Linux. I am looking to 
> run HDTV, and that is all, so other performance is unimportant. I need 
> good analog out (s-video), and of course VGA. If possible DVI would be 
> preferable if not too costly, so I could run pure digital to 
> DVI-equipped projectors, displays, and HDTVs. (At HDTV resolutions, 
> VGA has noticeable blurring) Can anybody suggest some cards that would 
> offer solid performance and value? What would be my best options for 
> sound output? I do not currently need more than simple stereo 
> RCA-style output, but if multiple channel support can be incorporated 
> into the system for not too much more, I would love to include it. 
> What sound cards would be best for Linux compatibility, good value, 
> and reasonable quality? Should I even think about using built-in 
> (motherboard) audio out?
>
> So once I get all this stuff hooked up physically, it's time for 
> software. First and obviously, I'm talking about using MythTV. I am 
> guessing that running MythTV on top of a Linux distro would be 
> preferable, as I will probably want to tweak lots of little things 
> over time and perhaps do tiny other tasks with the machine. Without 
> starting a holy war, what distro would be the simplest to setup and 
> use with MythTV? (Yes, I know I will probably get multiple and 
> conflicting opinions here!) I am aware of KnoppMyth, but I think I 
> would rather have a little more control over the system than that, and 
> I think I can manage to setup MythTV manually.
>
> I also will need some sort of remote control apparatus. I need to 
> further research this topic, but I would find it particularly 
> interesting if I could use my Treo 650 (bluetooth and IR equipped) to 
> control my system. I mean, if I already have the device, why not use 
> it as a remote? This is really a secondary topic, but I know it's 
> possible, so I'll get there.
>
> Looking forward to a few thoughts from people.... and thank you in 
> advance!
>
> -Galen
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