[mythtv-users] What's the best way to get started?

[Patrick Doyle]

Hello All,
I am looking to replace my old (SD, analog, Series 2) TiVo with a
shiny new MythTV.  I recently purchased a shiny new large-ish (37")
1080i LCD TV.  I looked at MythTV a couple of years ago, and thought I
remembered a "Here's my setup" page, but I can't seem to find that
anymore.

If anybody has advice, I'd be glad to hear it.  If anybody would like
to point me at the best (most recent) hardware recommendations guide,
I'd be glad to read through tath.

I know some of the specifications of what I want...

Since I want to replace my TiVo, I would like to build a combined
frontend/backend box.  I would like it to be roughly the same physical
size of the TiVo.  It would like it to have an integrated remote
receiver.  I think something like the Thermaltake Mozart Media Center
looks like the type of case I want.

I (currently) only receive and watch OTA ATSC video.  So I don't need
a whole lot of horsepower to encode the video, but I do need to
playback 720p and/or 1080i video.  I'm not sure how to interpret the
"HD_Playback_Reports" page on the wiki, but if I buy a retail CPU
(that fits in the retail uATX motherboard I stick in the case), is it
likely that I'll get something that can't handle that?  How much
memory is "enough" for MythTV?

Is there anything else I should be thinking about?  Yes, I know I'll
need a disk, or two, or three, but I can figure out the size of that
later.  Should I be (especially) concerned about the speed?  I have an
ATSC tuner on the way, courtesy of WOOT.


Thanks for any tips or pointers.

--wpd