[mythtv-users] mythtv hardware plans

[Brian Wood]

On Feb 5, 2007, at 8:35 AM, jason maxwell wrote:

>
> If you had up to ~$800 for hardware to build the best dual tuner HD/SD
> capable box that you could afford, what would your shopping list
> include? For the time being I will use my wireless keyboard for
> navigation, but will probably get a nice logitech/harmony remote or
> something eventually. I have optical drives, and plenty of IDE drives
> for the OS, but will need mobo, cpu, ram, power, storage, case,
> tuners, and video.
>

This is aimed not just at you but all of the "will this hardware  
work" type of questions that seem to be getting more and more common  
lately.

Nobody can tell you for certain what will work. The best that can be  
offered is to describe systems that *are* working and what they  
consist of. To this end Steve A's WiKi page is a good thing and I  
hope more of us (including me) get the time to make similar entries  
(and may I steal your layout Steve?).

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/User:Steveadeff#My_Life

But even if you were to purchase the exact same gear that Steve is  
using there are still no guarantees. For one thing the most important  
component of his system is listed as the first item under "My Life".  
With Myth the skill and experience of the user is a very important  
factor in the ultimate success of the box, as are things such as the  
tolerance level of any spouse/partner/children etc.

There are many many factors that you have not told us about, such as  
will you want multiple frontends, what are your program sources (STBs  
need some method to control them), what sort of display will you be  
driving (and is this to be included in the $800, in which case you  
are pretty well screwed). Other questions might be what sort of  
network do you have or are you planning, and is this cost included?  
You say "HD/SD" but how many channels of each do want to be able to  
record at the same time? An HDHR is probably a better solution if you  
want 2 HD tuners but a PCI card might be a better buy if you only  
want 1. Is noise or appearance going to be a factor for you? There is  
no way anyone can tell you if $800 will meet your needs without a lot  
more info.

Also remember that the definition of "working" is slippery. You could  
take a complete "working" system that perhaps has a 2 second delay in  
channel switching but is totally satisfying its owner and then  
discover that your wife was totally intolerant of the delay. What  
"works" for one person might not be satisfactory to another.

But please don't just post the answers to all these questions and  
expect a specific suggestion. You have to decide yourself after  
looking over all of the available information. I agree there should  
be more info in the WiKi, especially for HD systems. We really need  
to work on that but we all have other lives as well.

It is almost certain, however, that you will ultimately want more  
than you start with. To that end you want to not fill all your drive  
slots with smallish drives, or all 4 RAM slots with 256MB DIMMS,  
because such moves will result in having to throw or give away  
devices in the future. A 500GB drive might cost more than a pair of  
250s but be cheaper in the end when you upgrade to 2TB for example.

Make sure you have looked through:

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-3.html#ss3.1

Perhaps you might want to look at some of the "commercial" Myth  
offerings as well, though I will not mention them by name here. I'm  
not suggesting you buy one, but the H/W specs can be helpful.

I really hope I haven't offended you. I wanted to bring up some  
factors you may not have thought about and hopefully get you a better  
answer to your question in the long run.

As for your original question: My personal opinion is that a combined  
FE/BE capable of tuning a single HD and a single SD channel (say with  
a DVB card and a PVR card) in a non-attractive typically-noisy case,  
exclusive of monitor, could probably be built for under $800 if you  
shop around and know what you are doing as far as building PCs. You  
could probably keep it in that range even with the Harmony remote.  
This would not be a super-deluxe unit but it would "work".

I'd look at some of the older 939 CPUs and mobos with AGP and a 5200  
card as all of these things are getting pretty cheap these days, but  
if you want to play games on the machine that might not be the best  
way to go. For analog reception the PVRs are very well supported.

I recently picked up a package with an AMD FX60, an Asus mobo and a  
crappy case and PS for $400, you'd have to add RAM but you say you  
have drives. That is a very nice CPU IMHO, and should not have  
problems with HD, but it takes a noisy cooler, so I don't know if  
that's what you'd want.

But that, as all of this, is just my opinion, and I'm sure others  
have differing ones :-)