[mythtv-users] Migrating my mythtv setup to HD

[Emery Guevremont]

Kevin Kuphal wrote:
> On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 12:51 PM, Emery Guevremont 
> <emery.guevremont at gmail.com <mailto:emery.guevremont at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Kevin Kuphal wrote:
>>     On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 12:28 PM, Emery Guevremont
>>     <emery.guevremont at gmail.com <mailto:emery.guevremont at gmail.com>>
>>     wrote:
>>
>>         Hello everyone,
>>
>>         My problem:
>>         I've read through a lot of the emails in this mailing list that
>>         discusses HD and mythtv. But I'm still unsure how to migrate
>>         my current
>>         setup to be able to capture and display recording into HD.
>>
>>         My current setup:
>>         I currently get my TV from OTA (analog and digital) and cable
>>         (analog
>>         and clear QAM only). Right now I only have 2 PVR-150 cards on
>>         my Myth BE
>>         to capture the cable's and OTA analog channels. I also have
>>         an HDTV now,
>>         with dual co-ax inputs (one is used for cable and the other
>>         for OTA). I
>>         don't use a FE for watching my recordings. Instead I use a
>>         combination
>>         of mythweb for programming and I have a job for transcoding
>>         to Xvid.
>>         After I either burn to DVD and watch on a DVD player or I use
>>         my Archos
>>         605 to view my recording.
>>
>>         My (potentially) next purchase:
>>         Now I've been thinking on getting an HDHomerun for capturing,
>>         but I
>>         still need a way to view my HD recording on my TV.
>>
>>         My questions:
>>         What would be the cheapest way on doing this?
>>         Theoretically could the new HD-PVR be used to playback my
>>         recordings or
>>         does it just playback its own H.264 AVCHD video format?
>>         Is there a someone that makes an appliance like the MediaMVP
>>         but for HD?
>>         How would I go about transcoding HD recordings so that a
>>         regular DVD
>>         player or my Archos 605 be able to playback the recording?
>>         How powerful
>>         of a BE would I need to do something like that?
>>         Would a WinTV HVR-1950 from hauppauge be better then HDHomerun?
>>
>>         Any other low cost suggestions are welcomed.
>>
>>      
>>     What cost is low cost to you?
>     In terms of cost I'm willing to spend the $170 needed for the
>     HDHomerun and another $200 for a frontend solution. But I'd be
>     ready to only buy the HDHomerun, and temporarily transcode my
>     recordings so a DivX DVD player could play it. And in like 6
>     months buy whatever I needed for my FE.
>
>>     And what are the specs on your backend because with a decent
>>     enough processor for transcoding/commflagging HD, you could just
>>     as easily add in a relatively inexpensive video card that
>>     supports XvMC and do HD playback from your backend as well.
>     CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+
>     RAM: 768MB SDRAM
>     VIDEO CARD: Asus V7700 AGP (nVidia Corporation NV15 [GeForce2
>     GTS/Pro])
>     But I also have a more powerful ATI Radeon 9600 SE.
>     DISTRO: Gentoo
>
>  
> Despite the power. the Radeon won't do you any good for Linux as it 
> lacks any kind of hardware accelleration support.  You *might* be able 
> to do XvMC with that processor if you were to try say an Nvidia FX5200 
> AGP.  That card has excellent XvMC support and you could find a DVI 
> version and run DVI-HDMI to your TV.  I think that is most inexpensive 
> route (assuming the XvMC works well enough with that processor.  I 
> think I had HD running on my Athlon 1800 with a 440MX at one point so 
> I think it will work).   Otherwise, if you were to build a frontend, I 
> would strongly recommend getting enough CPU to decode regardless of 
> video card (Dual core, etc) so that you won't have to worry about all 
> this stuff in the future.  I can't imagine spending all the cash on an 
> HDTV and HDTV tuners only to transcode everything down to DVD to 
> watch.  You're missing half the joy of MythTV.
The transcoding would only be a temporary solution so that I can slowly 
built up to a full HD system without busting my family's budget. The 
HDTV I got from by using the points from my credit card's Aeroplan.

I'll do some reading up on XvMC in the wiki before deciding on the 
Nvidia card, but it does sound like very low cost solution.

Thanks.
>  
> Kevin
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