[mythtv-users] New MythTV setup

[Andrew Close]

On 10/25/05, David Wallace <dwallace at landsouth.net> wrote:
> Hello List,
>
> I am getting ready to build a mythTV machine from a lot of extra parts I
> have around and would like some input on hardware and interfacing into
> my current AV system.

welcome to the joy/obsession that is MythTv! ;)  sounds like you're
starting out the way quite a few ppl do.

> I have an Athalon 1700 on an Abit KD7 raid motherboard with 256 mb ram.

if you are only planning on doing analog capture and playback then
this should be fine.  once you start to venture into HDTV land you
will need a bit more power.

> 1) should I consider getting 4 drives the same size and use the hardware
> raid in stripping mode?

this may be overkill. :)  i don't think you need to worry about hard
drive performance since that usually isn't the bottleneck.  if you
want to use RAID because it's cool or to back up your data then that's
fine.  but you shouldn't need to worry about I/O performance from
newer IDE hard drives.  they're good enough.

> 2) I have a WinTV PVR 250 working for capture using ivtv 0.4.0. The
> hardware browser says it is a "Intermext Compression Inc iTVC16
> (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder", is this good enough for MythTV?

yep, it's the preferred card for analog capture (in most cases).  now
that ivtv is stablizing the PVR-150 and PVR-500 are becoming more and
more used mainly because they are cheaper.  but if yo already have a
250 then you're golden.

> 3) The video card is a Matrox Millennium G400 AGP, the one that can use
> dual head, had it doing TV out under RedHat 9. Will it work well with
> MythTV?

i'm going to have to defer this to the archives:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/

search for your video card and see what the response is like.  i
believe the nVidia 5400(?) series a very popular card.  i'm using
onboard video out on my mobo which uses the nVidia nforce2 chipset. 
works great.

> 4) Sound. My current AV system has a Sony 5.1 amp with a MD (digital
> tape) input and output, like old cassette tape monitior recievers. The
> motherboard has  a VIA AC97 audio controller with a 5.1 fiber output
> which I think can be inputted to the Sony MD input. Is there another
> audio card I could add to capture 5.1 into MythTV. My AV source is
> DirecTV which provides 5.1 (if available) to the amp.

if you're going to run sound to an external receiver then any
soundcard will do.  if you really want 5.1 or better sound then look
for sound cards that support S/PDIF passthrough.  this just hands the
audio signal off to your receiver to do the processing.  you really
don't need to buy a fancy/expensive sound card for this.

> I have been reading Jarod Wilson's Fedora 4 FAQ for mythTV which I find
> very helpful on the subject, but obviously can't address every hardware
> configuration possible, hence this posting. Thanks in advance to any
> that can help and make recommendations.

Jerod's guide is excellent and i've read it a couple of times myself. 
however i'm going to plug my favorite distro for MythTv.  check out
KnoppMyth - http://mysettopbox.tv
visit the forums and the wiki - both of which are great resources,
even for ppl who swear by other distros.

my original MythTv setup consisted of a handful of old parts.  once i
got it working and realized how much i liked it i did some research on
themore recent hardware that is supported and built a new system. :) 
i'm actually thinking of splitting my Myth install up across multiple
machines now.

if you feel that you need a better sound card or video card due to
responses here or in the archives, then you may want to consider
looking for a new motherboard with onboard options.  this may be
cheaper than replacing multiple cards and give you the ability to
upgrade in the future (ie more power...).

good luck!