[mythtv] MythTV PC - Any warnings?

[Henk Poley]

> Van: Jason RIchmond <jasongrichmond@yahoo.com>
> 
> Athlon xp-2000
> Biostar M7VIP
>    AC97 2.2 (6CH) Audio CODEC onboard
> 256mb Ram (Do I need 512 for it to run smooth?)
> 120gb WD 7200RPM HDD (ata-100)
> Geforce4-mx440 w/ tv out (for tv out to big screen)
> 10/100 lan card
> Hauppauge WinTV-GO
> 
> MY specific questions are:

Well, people are running MythTV (not wholy full featured) on machines with
about 1/4 of your specification. Looks like you're not especialy concerned
about noise? Though I haven't looked for the spefications of of the
components.

>   Fast enough processor?

See HOWTO on the site...

This sums it up:
P500  -> playback OR  1x record
P1000 -> playback AND 1x record
P2000 -> playback AND 2x record

>   Will sound work?
>   HDD Fast enough?

What you tell us does sound like it shouldn't be bad. But different
brands/modelnumbers behave differently. There are 5400RPM HDs that are
faster than most normal 7200RPM HDs.

btw, consider 1-2GB storage per hour, depending on the codec and resolution
you record at. A XP2000+ should be "able" to use the best compression, btw.

>   Enough ram?

They told me that you better go for faster RAM than more RAM. 256MB should
be enough for everyone :-)

Depends on what other things you want to do with it.

>   TV-out from the geforce 4 card going to work well?

Most people here uses GF4 cards, but it depends on the brand you buy what
it can do. Basicaly the card needs to support video overlay, and should be
up to generating 50Hz @ 640x480. There are also VGA->TV converters, some
people swear by this.

	Henk Poley <><