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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Unfortunately, my first appearance here is in the middle of
a heated debate that hopefully won’t turn into an all out flamewar…
I’m not usually so argumentative, but if you happen to push one of my hot
buttons…</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>But, on to actual technical stuff… </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I used to be a Tivo guy, and I had mine pretty customized,
but the motherboard went bad on it, and after looking at the alternatives, I’ve
decided that the free alternatives to Tivo’s proprietary solution are
mature enough to go that way instead of repairing my Tivo or buying a new one.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I noticed the ‘review my stats’ email somebody
put up, so I thought I’d put up a description of how I’m planning
on configuring my box and see if anybody saw any particular issues with it.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I ordered a Dell 400SC, since Dell had it on sale pretty
cheap. I could have got it for $300 shipped, but I upgraded to the
hyperthreading configuration for an extra $100. I figured $400 was a pretty
good deal for a machine that has HT. There’s not much of a video card,
but since I’m putting in a PVR-350 for the output, I figured “Who
cares, anyway?”</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Specs:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Pentium 4 2.4 GHz - 800Mhz FSB (I upgraded to the 800Mhz FSB
to get a CPU with hyperthreading)</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>128MB memory (I can add more later, but it’s too
expensive to get it directly from Dell)</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>40GB hard drive</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Onboard NIC</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>For the TV tuner, I’ve orderd a WinTV PVR-350. The
machine and the PVR card are both scheduled to arrive this week.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>My plan is to start with the basic configuration above, to
get the system working. I’ll probably be using either Fedora, or Mandrake
but I haven’t decided which way to go now that RedHat is dropping support
for their basic product. I’ve been a RedHat user for many years now, and
I still haven’t quite figured out what distro to migrate to on all of my
boxes yet. The OS will go on the 40GB internal drive, and while I’m
getting the system up and running, so will the stored programs. Once I’m
up and running however, my plan is to add a SATA drive (The 400SC has onboard
SATA), and keep the programs on a separate drive/bus from the OS. Also, that
will leave the secondary IDE channel freed up for a DVD burner upgrade later. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>While I’m getting the whole thing setup, I’m
planning on just connecting to my network via the onboard adapter, but once I’m
happy with the way it’s setup, I want to move it into the living room,
and at that point I would like to put in a PCI or USB wireless adapter and
connect that way. Has anybody run MythTV over a wireless network, and if so how
well did it work? I figure that 802.11b might be a little bandwidth restrictive
if I were to add a second front end sometime in the future, but I’ll be
going with 802.11g, which should hopefully be fast enough. That’s just
conjecture on my part though, so if anybody has any actual experiences with
this, I’d appreciate hearing about it.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Other than that, my plans are pretty vague, since I don’t
actually have the hardware yet, but I’m hoping that it’ll make for
a pretty good MythTV platform.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Shawn Asmussen</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
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