Re[2]: [mythtv] WinTV PVR-250 (hardware mpeg encoder)

[Andrew Dacey]

On 1/10/03 1:08 AM, "Wayne Johnson" <bigman1@alltel.net> wrote:

> I think you miss the point of this project. Isaac wrote this for his
> amusement. If you provide patches etc, he might consider it. I
> personally don't see what the big deal is lately with the whole
> sff/mini-itx movement.
> On the topic of quieting a computer it doesn't have to be expensive at
> all. rubber grommets found at hardware stores can be used for fan and
> harddrive/cd/dvd mounting to cut down vibration. Also, quiet fans can
> be found online at very reasonable prices.
> My 0.02 cents

I think it's really a case of what your needs are and what is available for
you. For myself, I can get a celeron 350 cpu and mobo for free from a
friend. I also don't have the same availability locally for cheap new
processors. An Athlon XP 1800+ locally is $156 CAD (roughly $100 US) after
taxes, plus I'd need a motherboard for it still. To do mail order would add
shipping, taxes, and possibly duty so it's not a viable solution for me when
it comes to hardware I can acquire locally.

Yes, for some people, the WinTV PVR cards don't make sense, if they are able
to acquire the other hardware at a reasonable price. For others, they may be
looking at what existing hardware they have that can be re-used. For myself,
I think I can get a WinTV PVR-250 and a Hardware MPEG-2 decoder card for
less money than I'd spend on a new CPU and mobo. With those 2 pieces of
hardware (encoder and decoder cards) I should be able to run a PVR quite
capably on a celeron 350. If I want to add a 2nd tuner for PIP or 2 record
operations I can just pop in another encoder card and go nuts (assuming the
drive is up to the task). For me, this is a better option. It allows me to
create a fully working system right now that is still scalable without
breaking the bank. Down the road, I might want to upgrade to a more powerful
system in order to handle other tasks. But, I can still take over a lot of
the existing hardware. This would save me money in the long-term because so
much of the PVR cpu load is handled by the cards so I don't need to upgrade
to a newer CPU that's capable of handling those other tasks as well as all
the PVR stuff I want to throw at it. Again, your mileage may vary.

In terms of this being Isaac's project, that's true. I think it's great that
he's made it available for others to use, patch, customize, etc. I don't
think it's fair for others to harass him, or any other developer, to
implement features that they're not interested in. This would be especially
true of those users who are not contributing to the project because they
either lack the knowledge (such as myself, don't know c) or are unwilling to
put in the time. I would love to see WinTV PVR-250 support in MythTV. If
someone adds it, that would make me very happy but I'm not going to expect
developers who aren't interested in this feature to work on it just to
satisfy me. If it happens, great. If it doesn't, well then I'll have to
either figure out how to hack it myself or look for another solution (either
through different hardware or a different project which does support it).

-- 
Andrew "Frugal" Dacey
frugal@tildefrugal.net
http://www.tildefrugal.net/