[mythtv-users] Box setup suggestions

[Michael T. Dean]

chris king wrote:

> I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment, however with the coming 
> holiday season I will quite a bit of cash to spend freely. Just out of 
> curiosity what is a good estimate of what I should invest in a mythtv 
> box to start out with. Considering I would like to have a bit of 
> storage I'm estimating at 80gb

I'm not sure that's enough to be considered "a bit."  I think 80GB is 
more of "a tiny little bit."  ;)

> , and then a dvd burner,

If you have a DVD burner on any computer in the network, I'd say to 
forgo putting one on your Myth box.  I just have a 6+-year-old DVD-ROM 
in my Myth box (for watching DVD's) and find it much easier to burn 
DVD's on my main workstation.

IMHO, you're much better off buying plenty of storage.  Number two 
priority should be having enough tuner cards.

> probably an amd processor at least 2800+, then a 200 dollar tv tuner 
> Happauge thing that the main page describes

Go for a PVR-150.  With a 2800+, a PVR-350 is a complete and total waste 
of money.  The PVR-150 would be about $90 at a bad time and about $60 on 
sale (currently $65.99 with free shipping for one without a remote from 
buy.com - 
http://www.buy.com/prod/Hauppauge_WinTV_PVR_150_MCE_Personal_Video_Recorder/q/loc/101/10383781.html  
or $84.94 with free shipping for one with a remote - 
http://www.buy.com/prod/Hauppauge_WinTV_PVR_150_Hardware_MPEG2_PCI_TV_Tuner_w_TV_Recording/q/loc/101/10385910.html 
).  You could easily get two of them for $150 if you watch the 
ads/hardware retail sites.  Of course, once you buy a second, that 80GB 
becomes "a teeny-tiny little-itty bit" of storage.

> , and some form of remote.

If money is a concern, the LIRC simple IR receiver with any remote you 
currently own is a great low-cost, fully-functional approach ( 
http://lirc.org/receivers.html ).

> Also what do you guys uses for remotes,

I use an ATI Remote Wonder--primarily because I had one sitting around 
and I like using it from any room (i.e. it's RF, so it's not line-of-sight).

> and controllers considering both need to be wireless. Lastly does 
> anyone here use charter cable or dish satellite, if so how are the 
> results with that?

I have DISH network (for now, about to drop it in favor of OTA HDTV) and 
it works great.  I've only missed one channel change in 2 years and that 
was because my receiver didn't have a signal (rain) and so it wouldn't 
change channels--not the LIRC transmitter's fault.

Mike