[mythtv-users] Backend / Frontend advise

Steve Adeff adeffs at gmail.com
Tue Jan 10 20:28:26 UTC 2006


On Tuesday 10 January 2006 15:13, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> Jonathan Oexner wrote:
> > Sorry to semi-hijack, but I'm in a kinda similar situation.  I've got
> > an Athlon XP 1800+ box with 3/4 gig of memory and a 4x AGP slot.
> > Right now I'm just using it as a backend to capture SD via a PVR-250
> > card.  I'm using an XBox as a remote frontend, via a component video
> > adapter hooked up to my HD TV.  Works like a charm, couldn't be
> > happier, but...
> >
> > At the end of the month I'll be getting a DTC-62xx (I think) from RCN
> > here in Boston.  I'd like to capture via the Firewire port and watch
> > it on my TV, but I understand that the XBox probably doesn't have the
> > horsepower to decode and display a 1080i signal.  Is there a video
> > card with component video outputs that I can drop into the 4x AGP slot
> > on my mobo that will be able to render a 1080i video stream?
> >
> > I've heard people mention that some Nvidia 6200-based cards come with
> > a component-out dongle and they work well for HD video, but all the
> > cards I've seen say AGP 8x (or PCI-e).  Would an AGP 8x Nvidia 6200
> > card even work in a 4x AGP slot, or would the video kinda suck if the
> > card stepped itself down to AGP 4x?
>
> The 1800+ will most likely be a problem (although you might be able to
> make it work with XvMC, it will be so close to the edge it will probably
> still be annoying), so you might want to just create a new dedicated
> frontend.  That would allow you to get a processor that will be able to
> decode the video as well as a MB with an AGP 8X (or PCI-E) slot.
> Unfortunately, that will be more expensive than just dropping a video
> card in the existing backend...
>
> Mike

Another option is, if you only use mpeg2 is to buy a Roku and install MythRoku 
on it as a front end. All the firewire transfers from the cablebox will be in 
mpeg2, so original recordings won't be a problem, its any transcodes, etc you 
might have.

The Roku can be had for ~$300.

You might also want to get a couple DCT's from RCN, from what I understand, 
RCN in Boston doesn't enable 5C.

-- 
Steve


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