[mythtv-users] Summer Project 2005, MythTV Box Proposal

[Rob Bongiovi]

I am doing almost exactly the same thing this
summer...and am pretty new, so take my comments with a
grain of salt. That said, here are some of the
considerations I've done.

1. For the video card: I've decided on my main front
ends to use FX 5200 with DVI outputs (I intend to
connect to HD TVs). They are 5-10 bucks more
expensive, but I think that I'd prefer the
flexibility.

2. I decided to use the video card for TV out and went
with a single PVR-500MCE (which is two PVR-150's on
one card). I got it to work pretty quickly using
Jarod's Fedora instructions and a thread from this
list (I haven't tried it with Knoppmyth, yet.)

3. There was some comments about incompatibility with
VIA based Motherboards in the MythTV readme. It may
all be gone in the latest version, but I decided to
play it safe and only use nForce-based motherboards.
In fact, I've been pleased with this combo from
Tigerdirect for $79 AR:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1166612&Sku=MBM-7NJL6-XP2900

(you'll still need a CPU fan with this. Be careful
picking it. It is the noisiest component of my
system.)

4. Consider both Jarod's Fedora installation HOW-TO
and Knoppmyth. I've experimented with both. The Fedora
flavor takes a long-time to install, while knoppmyth
takes less than an hour. I have had a very stable
Fedora based system doing Standard Def MythTV.
Knoppmyth seemed to be less stable, but I was trying
HD with it and didn't take the time to "tweak" it,
yet.

I think you are right on with cost. I have now
purchased two systems for mythTV. My HD BE/FE combo
cost $650 (incl case) while my SD BE/FE combo cost
$660 (w/ a more expensive quiet case).

Hope this helps.
Rob


--- John Hanauer <johnhanauer at gmail.com> wrote:

> My proposal, any advice, thoughts, comments,
> questions would be appreciated.
> 
> My basic assumptions was 80 hour TiVo is 300 with 1
> tuner and lifetime
> subscription is 300.  So, operating budget was 600
> plus some slack
> because of not paying tax.
> 
> WinTV-PVR-150MCE newegg.com $70.00
> WinTV-PVR-350 ajump.com $174.00
> ASUS V9520-X/TD/128 Geforce FX5200 128MB DDR
> newegg.com $44.50
> ASUS A7V600-X Socket A (Socket 462) VIA KT600
> newegg.com $59.50
> AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton 333MHz FSB newegg.com
> $103.00
> WINTEC 512MB DDR SDRAM (PC 3200) Unbuffered
> newegg.com $37.82
> WD Caviar SE WD2500JD 250GB 7200 RPM SATA150
> newegg.com $124.00
> 
> $612.82 total.
> 
> I realize that the PVR-350 is unnecessary if I've
> got a video card
> doing TV-out, and I could probably save a lot of
> money not having it,
> but I've heard playback for MPEG-2 is just awesome
> with it.  So I
> might still in the end scrap the PVR-350, save 70
> bucks, and get a
> PVR-150.
> 
> -John
> 
> PS: I have an old case to throw all this in.
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