[mythtv-users] MythTV on a laptop

[bhaskins]

On 11/29/2011 07:49 AM, Alex Feldman wrote:
>
> On 11/28/2011 10:25 PM, Nick Rout wrote:
>> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 1:54 PM, Alex Feldman<grizdog at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>> I live in the US and will be watching both OTA and cable - if this works
>>> reasonably well I want to make several of them for friends
>> Please don't top post.
>>
>> I am not qualified to advise on North American tuners, but I am sure
>> there will be some USB ones available.
>>
>> As I say, your laptop will be OK for testing and getting used to
>> mythtv, but you really want something bigger as a real solution. A
>> separate backend and frontend is ideal. It means you can put your
>> grunty large ugly noisy backend server in the basement, and a quiet
>> frontend next to the TV.
>>
>> Beware of setting up systems for friends, that are not that easy to
>> maintain remotely, and you WILL be expected to maintain them! (Been
>> there, done that).
>> _______________________________________________
>>
> Sorry about the top posting.  It won't happen again.
>
> The friends I would be doing this for understand the deal - as a group,
> we've been here before.  But I know what you mean.
>
> Indeed, the laptop may wind up just being the front end, once we get a
> look at everything.  Everyone involved has a big desktop machine with
> plenty of spare capacity.  So I guess that modifies the question:
>
> Given I will be starting everything out on the laptop, but then moving
> the backend to a desktop machine, and everything will be in the USA and
> either OTA or cable, does it matter what kind of tuner card I get, and
> if so, what should I look for?  I am particularly concerned about the
> lirc - I have no experience at all with that technology.
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
>
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First of all, I don't think that you will be happy with a A30 or even a 
A31 as a front end.
1080 is just painful thanks to the less than adequate graphics drivers.
  I have had several of both models and often use a laptop to select the 
shows through
Mythweb.
If you want to transcode everything down or just view SD that's another 
story.
The A30/31 were and are great machines, much more dependable than almost any
other that you can buy today but the sucky graphics drivers and the slow 
USB (1.1 )
will not please you in the long run.
FWIW I use a R52 and a R60 and these are barely adequate for the job.