[mythtv-users] Commercial PVR offerings - is MythTv still competitive ?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/09/2009 06:39 PM, David Brodbeck wrote:
> On Mon, February 9, 2009 3:33 pm, jedi wrote:
>   
>>     Now the idea that you have to make special preparations to make a
>> PC handle HD is just silly. PCs are inherently "high definition"
>> devices and have been since before there were ideas of having HD TV.
>>     
> The amount of discussion on this list about how to get proper HD playback
> suggests otherwise.  It seems this is a really difficult issue for a lot
> of people.  At any rate, I know my 1.8 GHz Pentium 4 can't do it.  Buying
> a machine with the minimum specs for smooth HD playback would, at this
> point, result in my MythTV box being the most powerful computer in my
> whole house.

Myth mythfrontend system is an Athlon X2 6000+.  My next-most-powerful 
system is an Athlon X2 5200+ that's a dedicated MythTV development system.

The other 9 computers in my house are all Athlon XP or Sempron (32-bit) 
systems (around about 4 years old) in the 1700+ to 3000+ range.

What's wrong with a mythfrontend system being the most powerful in the 
house?  Put the processor where it's useful, after all.

Oh, and the dedicated MythTV development system cost me all of about 
$180 for mobo/CPU/RAM (I had some extra cases with PSU's and the mobo 
has integrated video/sound) and that was >1yr ago.

How old is that P4, anyway?  If you want a useful Myth system, don't 
throw old, hand-me-down hardware at it (unless you're buying seriously 
overpowered systems for something else, like Windows-based PC gaming, 
and handing them down when they're still sufficiently useful for Myth).

Mike