[mythtv-users] Cost of MythTV Machines

[Yeechang Lee]

Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> says:
> With some recent discussion here about CPUs and costs I wonder what
> the "average" cost of a MythTV machine might be.
> 
> I have seen some "turnkey" machines offered for what I consider to
> be very high prices, even given the fact that the builders deserve a
> certain profit. I do not wish to mention names, but $1500 for what
> seems to be a minimal front/back-end box with 1 capture card seems
> quite high to me,

Presuming you're talking about Mythic.TV's Dragon, $1450 seems to me a
reasonably fair price for high-quality, well-chosen components (solid
motherboard with both gigabit Ethernet and FireWire, for example)
preassembled inside a nice case that fits well lookwise into a
component stack. (Although I do wonder about the Nvidia 6200TC, given
that by most accounts a MX5200 would deliver better performance for a
lwoer price. I'm looking forward to seeing for myself when my cheap
eBay-purchased PCX 5300 arrives this week; thanks, Scott, for pointing
it out.) Plus custom scripts to ease the KnoppMyth installation (I'm
sorry, but one of the cruelest things I can think of is to give a
novice KnoppMyth and tell him it's an out-of-the-box way to turn any
computer into a super-TiVo instantly, as so much online literature more or
less claims. SATA drives require manual installation? Dire warnings
against USB keyboards and mice? Sheesh.) onto the box.

I didn't go the Dragon route, but in retrospect perhaps I should
have. Here's what I've spent so far:

* $800 Sony VGC-RB Pentium 4 3.0GHz (nice, understated black case with
  Sony logo, although minitower instead of the Dragon's stereo
  component-style case)
* $70 Nvidia GeForce 6200TC PCI Express card
* $40 Nvidia PCX 5300 PCI Express card (to replace previous)
* $80 D-Link gigabit Ethernet PCI Express card
* $80 URC MX-500 universal learning remote
* $40 IR wireless keyboard/mouse
* $160 HD5000 HDTV capture card
----------------------
* $1190 Total (to simplify matters I'm excluding sales tax from
  everything). The Sony computer cost $800 as part of a bundle that
  also included a $200 Sony flat-panel monitor and $120 Epson
  all-in-one printer; I'll probably end up selling the monitor, so
  that should reduce the $800 cost by some amount.

If I ever want digital sound output I'll probably have to invest $50
in a PCI sound card to replace the onboard Intel HDA audio, and then
I'll lose the ability to put a second HDTV capture card in the
computer. (I guess I could go USB, but that's another box hanging off
the box.)

Now, it is true that with my setup I do get some things I wouldn't
have had with Dragon, like the wireless keyboard/mouse and what is
unquestionably the most sophisticated <$100 remote on Earth. However,
the Dragon approach has certain advantages as well, like a
slightly-nicer case, more slots, 512MB more memory, better sound
hardware, and a second gigabit Ethernet port. Oh, and $210 in cash,
but then look again at the list of things Dragon has that my setup
doesn't. Besides, my time is worth money, after all.

[The following is *not* addressed to Brian specifically; Brian, please
don't take it as such. It's also in some ways a repeat of what I wrote
in
<URL:http://www.mail-archive.com/mythtv-users@mythtv.org/msg53363.html>.]

I know this is the cue for half the list to jump in with how they
built a great MythTV box out of the parts sitting in the closet, or
how they bought a $100 motherboard and a $25 case and a $100 CPU,
etc., etc., and built a great MythTV box. Hey, more power to
you. Guess what? Most of you aren't even trying to do HDTV, or if you
are you're likely the ones trying to play 1080i with a low-end Celeron
or two year-old AMD and finding that even XvMC doesn't help much. Let
me repeat: My time is worth money. Or, conversely, it can be
worthwhile to pay someone else to do the heavy lifting in the whole
parts procurement and assembly phase of MythTV. Heaven knows this list
is living proof that the software phase is difficult enough!

Don't get me wrong: I appreciate the tinkering and constant striving
toward perfection as much as the next guy. That's why I took the
gamble of buying the PCX 5300 although honestly the HDTV picture I get
right now is quite satisfactory; I really do want to go from a 95%
HDTV picture to 100%. That's why I spent half of Saturday puzzling
over getting the HD5000 plus indoor antenna to finally pick up a few
over-the-air channels (fortunately, including the two HD network
affiliates that RCN cable in San Francisco doesn't carry) after
several false starts at the issue. But can I understand someone who
prefers the destination to the journey, and is willing to pay a bit
more to get there that much faster? Absolutely.

-- 
Yeechang Lee <ylee at pobox.com> | +1 650 776 7763 | San Francisco CA US