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<DIV><SPAN class=120454816-25072007><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff size=2>If
you're gonna use the latest Ubuntu edition (as i did), and you're gonna be
running Gnome, i'd recommend a minimum 1gb ram. I was running it on a P4 2.8ghz
with 512mb ram, and it did fine, but there was a huge improvement when i moved
to 1gb ram. Also, you can do just fine on as little as a 1ghz computer (or even
slower) but the slower you go, the slower the response time of myth will be. If
your computer has an AGP port, get an Nvidia FX5200 (i have an extra if you want
one), it works great, and if you want to upgrade to HD in the future, it will
work great for that too. Also, you prob want to get a tv tuner with hardware
encoding, like one of the Hauppague ones (PVR-250, PVR-150, PVR-500). I have a
PVR-500 and when recordings are in process, the cpu is pretty much idle. I tried
a tuner without hardware encoding, and the CPU was around 25% when encoding, and
that's with a P4 2.8ghz. On something slower, the CPU would have been much
higher if not maxed out.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=120454816-25072007><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=120454816-25072007><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff size=2>I
recommend you don't get a Celeron cpu if you're gonna be doing
transcoding.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=120454816-25072007><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=120454816-25072007><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff
size=2>Also, when you say a myth setup, that can mean a lot. For example, that
might mean that you watch just a few hours of TV each week, and just delete the
shows after you record them, or it could mean that you are recording shows all
the time and are trying to save as much as possible via transcoding or
nuvexport.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=120454816-25072007><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=120454816-25072007><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff size=2>Hope
that helps.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Verdana size=2><SPAN
class=120454816-25072007>-Steve</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
mythtv-users-bounces@mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces@mythtv.org] <B>On
Behalf Of </B>Joshua Gottlieb<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, July 25, 2007 9:23
AM<BR><B>To:</B> Discussion about mythtv<BR><B>Subject:</B> [mythtv-users]
Seeking Advice<BR><BR></FONT></DIV><BR>Ok, so I'm a noob at all this.
Now I have tried to do a good deal of reading on the forums and what not
trying to get a feel for the recommended hardware etc.<BR><BR>I'm trying to
build a box from scratch, specifically for mythtv. Originally I had
planned on getting a Hauppauge PVR-350 so I could have the MPEG2 decryption on
the card. This seemed like the ideal solution and I could get very low
end hardware as all the work would be done by the card. However, then I
saw various comments about how the card is being phased out, soon to be not
supported etc, etc... <BR><BR>So I started doing more research and noticed
that there are a few small form factor motherboards that have TV-outs and
built-in MPEG2 decryption, so I thought maybe that would be a good path, but
there didn't seem to be very many folks having used the newer hardware.
<BR><BR>Anyway, what I'm trying to do is get advice from the experienced folks
on here to setup a good solid mythtv system.<BR><BR>I don't really need dual
tuner right now, but might in the future. I don't need HD support and
most likely won't in the foreseeable future. <BR><BR>So if someone were just
going to build a mythtv system and didn't need HD, what would the general best
hardware be?<BR><BR>I'm looking for something that is not going to be crazy
difficult to setup as well. So hardware that works well and is well
supported would be preferred. That said, I am a pretty solid Linux user
and would probably be building this under the latest Ubuntu distro.
<BR><BR>Any advice would be MUCH appreciated.<BR><BR>And yes, I apologize for
asking what is surely a much too frequently asked question, but I just haven't
been able to come to a good conclusion based on what I've read so far in the
forums... <BR><BR>Joshua<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>