[mythtv-users] Building A MythTV Box

Galen galen at myhome.net
Mon Apr 11 05:23:10 UTC 2005


Looked over that link... not too bad, but when it started by saying 
"500 Mhz or better" on the front page I was laughing...

I only skimmed the Windows sections, as I have no plans to be touching 
Windows here. The cases shown are rather interesting and might be right 
up my alley.

It is an interesting introduction, but I would really like to talk 
about MythTV/Linux-optimal specifics.

-Galen

On Apr 10, 2005, at 9:51 PM, Jonathan Henry wrote:

> 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
>> _______________________________________________
>> mythtv-users mailing list
>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>



More information about the mythtv-users mailing list