[mythtv-users] Special needs dad with MythTV hardware questions

mythtv-users.jim-j at mamber.net mythtv-users.jim-j at mamber.net
Mon Nov 25 06:51:00 UTC 2013


Thank you for all of the replies.  All of my questions (and several I
didn't even know I had) have been answered.  I believe I now have all
the info I need to build a working MythTV machine.  I've had this
MythTV project in the back of my mind for a few years now (ever since
my old trusty ReplayTV died).  I rarely (basically never since Lost
ended) watch TV myself, it's mainly for the kids to use.  I think I'd
get more enjoyment out of building/tweaking a MythTV box than actually
using it.  :)  I can think of some cool uses for a dedicated TV PC.

Of course all that flexibility and tweaking would also be my curse.  I
really don't have the time right now to play with it like I would like
to.  So I've been sitting on the fence, wondering if I should just
take the plunge now and get a basic system up and working and then
come back later and start modifying things when I have more free time.

Ultimately I've decided to (yet again) kick this MythTV project a
little farther down the road (hopefully just till this spring).  Like
I said before I got all of my questions answered and I think I could
get a system built and working relatively quickly, but I decided to
delay for these reasons (in no particular order):
1.  Others have pointed out there is the risk of this sucking up more
of my time than I intended.  This has always been a concern for me
(which is why I've gone multiple years DVR-less), but having a few
others repeat this concern increases the odds that my wife is correct
when she tells me "you KNOW this MythTV idea is going to take longer
than you think."  Darn her experience in dealing with me!  :)
2.  One risk that I hadn't thought of before is my antenna setup may
not be up to the task of supporting the internal splits of a
multi-tuner card (thanks for the detailed explanation stephen_agent).
Some of my stations are borderline already.  Of course a simple
amplified splitter might fix it, but the worst case is I may actually
need an antenna upgrade which isn't in the cards for me right now. I
don't think this is an insurmountable problem for me, but just one
more thing that increases the odds of this taking longer than I hoped.
3.  The HDTC-2US tuner that eric mentioned sounds very interesting to
me.  If I wait a bit I can silently troll this mailing list to see if
others have good luck with it.  Plus it isn't available yet anyway.

While this email from me adds no useful content to the thread, I
thought ya'll might be curious as to how I used all the useful
information presented here.  After getting all of this great advice I
feel bad not acting on it now, but I hope to put it to good use soon.
Thanks again to everyone who replied.



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