[mythtv-users] Upgrade Suggestions - currently on myth 0.21 with PVR150, 250, 350

[James Pifer]

On Sat, 2011-07-02 at 18:36 -0400, James Pifer wrote:

> > 
> > On Jul 2, 2011 10:03 PM, "James Pifer" <jep at obrien-pifer.com> wrote:
> > > I've been running Myth since the 0.14 days. Couldn't live without it
> > and
> > > WAF is fairly high except for a couple nagging issues we've been
> > > having. 
> > > 
> > > 1) I'm running my mythbackend on a Dell Poweredge 1600SC. It
> > > occasionally locks up. It's totally random and I believe it's
> > hardware
> > > related. Plus, on top of that, one of the fans has gone bad. 
> > > 
> > > 2) Next is the bigger problem I've been fighting for a long time. We
> > get
> > > a lot of jumps or bad video in spots, but not on every video. I've
> > > tracked which inputs had the bad recordings, and it doesn't point to
> > a
> > > specific card. I've ran with the unit open with a fan blowing on the
> > > cards, and with it closed running it's normally fans (until the one
> > > failed above). So I've never figured out of the cards are bad or
> > not.
> > > 
> > > So I want to upgrade the hardware and at the same time get to a more
> > > current release of mythtv. I currently have three PCI cards, 150,
> > 250,
> > > 350, so finding a motherboard is doable, but limits me. 
> > > 
> > > I don't have HD cable, except for the free channels. My three
> > separate
> > > frontends don't have enough power to do HD on their end, some I'm
> > not in
> > > a hurry to do it anyway. 
> > > 
> > > SO, finally my questions:
> > > 
> > > Any specific motherboard/CPU suggestions with at least 3 PCI slots?
> > > 
> > > Are there any low priced, non-PCI options for replacing my Hauppauge
> > > cards? 
> > > 
> > > I also run a pretty powerful xen server and I know I could put
> > > mythbackend on there, but I can't use the PCI cards. I would have to
> > > replace the tuner cards. I could pass through some USB ports. I
> > wouldn't
> > > mind doing it this way at all if I could do it and still have at
> > least
> > > three tuners.
> > > 
> > > Any alternative tuner options?
> > > 
> > > Any help is greatly appreciated. 
> > > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > James
> > > 
> 
> On Sat, 2011-07-02 at 23:17 +0100, Richard Morton wrote:
> > As I don't know the tuner cards you are talking about it would help
> to
> > know your territory, your tv reception coonection and transport type
> > (atsc dvbt dvbc dvbs fios etc)
> > 
> > R
> > 
> > Please excuse brevity and pistakes this email was composed on a
> mobile
> > phone.
> > 
> > Thanks and best regards,
> > 
> > Richard
> 
> Good suggestion. I'm in Charlotte, NC in the US. Cable provider is
> Time
> Warner. No set top boxes, basic cable. Only HD is tuned by digital
> tuners in my TVs. It's "regular" coaxial connections and I assume
> atsc.
> (?).
> 
> Thanks,
> James
> 

Sorry for the previous top port. Actually I think mine is NTSC. 

Thanks,
James