[mythtv-users] (no subject)

David Watkins watkinshome at gmail.com
Mon Sep 26 09:42:34 UTC 2005


On 26/09/05, Ben Edwards <Ben.Edwards at flybe.com> wrote:
> I'm new to this list but have thinking about building a MythTV box of a year
> or so.  I've now started ordering bits (well a antec overture II case) and
> am planning on using a  Hauppauge WinTV NOVA-t freeview PCI card and
> Ubuntu/512MB memory.  As you can probably imagine, I have a few questions.
>
> Firstly what processor should I get. I had a AMD Sempron 3000+ to 3400+ in
> mind.  What I was hoping on being able to do is allow the TV card to do the
> recording and have enough oomth in the CPU to be able to decode/play at the
> same time as recording or do I need two TV cards to do this.

A single TV card will allow you to record while watching the programme
being recorded (with rewind, pause etc) or to watch any previously
made recording.  What you won't be able to do is watch any other live
channel (because the tuner card will be locked to the channel being
recorded).

As far as CPU oomph goes.  I have two Nova-t PCI cards in my box and
am able to record two channels while also watching, and I'm using an
AMD XP1400 CPU (1GHz Clock) so I don't think you'd have any problems
with any of today's CPUs.

> Being able to play and record at the same time is very important to me.  How do I wire
> things up to record/play at the same time.  If I had two cards would I have
> one wired to record an the other to play and do they have to be the same
> cards?

The NOVA-t PCI card writes the incoming mpeg stream to a file on your
hard disk.  Multiple cards allow you to stream several channels to
disk simultaneously (1 per card)

Watching the programme requires a graphics card with TV out capability
and a sound card connected to amp/speakers.  MythTV playback simply
streams one of the files on disk to the sound/video out.


>
> Is the  'Hauppauge WinTV NOVA-t PCI card' a good choice or are there other
> freeview cards I should consider (freeview is the relatively new free to
> view TV service here in the UK).  I am assuming here that I should go for a
> internal PCI card because I am not sure about compatibility with external
> USB cards although having a external card is better from the point of you of
> interference.

I've never used a USB card, but the PCI cards were certainly easy to
setup.  All I had to do was.

modprobe dvb-cx88

Everything else could be done from with Myth


Good Luck


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list