[mythtv-users] Use of Macintosh G4 as MythTV box

[Nick Tan]

> I'm in Australia and have Optus cable at home and I'm getting Foxtel 
> cable TV over that cable service as well as being in a digital broadcast 
> area, so I'm aware that I can use a DVB card to grab digital broadcasts 
> from the air, or use a bog standard analog capture card and IR 
> transmitter to channel change the Foxtel unit, right?

You can do both if you like.  This is what I do (with optus cable).

> 
> So, given the dual CPU available to me right now, should I proceed with 
> the purchase of a capture card, or am I waving the proverbial in the 
> wind? Should I concentrate on acquiring myself a faster CPU before 
> thinking about purchasing a capture card or will the dual CPU cut it 
> once I play with the capture rate? And will I be able to watch 'live' TV 
> with MythTV?
> 
> TIA,

If you use hardware encoding capture cards (DVB-T does this, and 
analogue capture cards like the PVR-250) you don't need a lot of CPU for 
the capture of the video.

Not sure if the CPUs will be enough for playback though.  But I've 
played back my recordings on a P3-700 with no problems (from a remote 
backend).

Hope this helps.

Nick