<div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div style="direction: ltr;"><br>
<big>Hi Timothy,<br>
<br>
I'm new to Myth too. Just set one up completely, and with invaluable
help from the kind folks on this list.<br>
<br>
I'm also contemplating expanding my MythTV setup across the house, and
here are my preliminary (untested) thoughts that I'd share with the
folks here for commentary:<br>
<br>
* old PIII-based system, 512MB RAM, large USB Lacie HDD<br>
* a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-350 w/ TV-Out (to a regular TV via S-video)<br>
or<br>
* a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 (no TV-Out) to a 21" monitor + a decent
graphics card<br>
<br>
Steve<br>
</big>
</div></blockquote></div><br>I would suggest against getting a PVR-350, for various reasons. The MPEG output on the PVR-350 does look nice, but the problems with support more than overshadow any quality advantage it might have. Menus are slow, fast forward, rewind, time stretch, etc don't (and probably will never) work with the PVR-350. DVD and other video playing won't work well with the PVR-350. OpenGL is not going to work on the PVR-350, and MythTV is moving to all OpenGL for the menu systems.
<br><br>So my suggestion is to get a recording card and a decent NVidia card with TV-Out.<br><br>For a recording card:<br>PVR-150 PVR-250: These cards are basically the same, but the PVR150 is newer and cheaper. Depending on the package, some come with a remote
<br>PVR-500: This is basically two PVR-150 tuners on one board. If you have analog cable, this is a good way to get two tuners. If you have digital cable or satellite, you would need to get two set-top boxes to use both tuner inputs, and you might need to buy a breakout card to get the inputs you need for the 500, so you may want to just start with a 150.
<br><br>Graphics card:<br>Anything nvidia with Tv-Out.<br>