[mythtv] Ideal System For Getting Started.

[Michael Pedersen]

On from work, so no GPG signature.

Would personal experience be of use in your quest? My experiences are 
not exactly typical, but can tell you some of the pitfalls to avoid 
(man, I'm good at finding problems to be dealt with!).

1) Capture Cards: Avoid the straight ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon. One of 
the later models might be fine, but this particular card is poorly 
supported under video4linux, which MythTV uses. In fact, the best advice 
is to make sure that the capture card you get has good support for V4L.

2) Video Cards: Try to get one which has easy support for a tv out port. 
  Again, the ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon is -=NOT=- a good choice for this. 
After all, you're going to want to watch it on a regular tv sooner or 
later, and you'll be happier then. Also make sure that it has Xvideo 
support natively. Believe it or not, that makes a major performance 
difference that can drastically affect playback of shows recorded while 
watching other shows.

3) BB[HD&CPU&RAM] (where BB = Bigger/Better): The more the merrier. The 
only caveat associated with this is to make sure that you are getting 
IDE controllers which get as much speed as possible under your chosen 
kernel. And yes, this DOES make a big difference. My hd went from about 
20M/s to over 80M/s just with a few minor tweaks.

I know it's not as useful/comprehensive as you would have liked, but it 
IS there, and might help with some research.

Michael Wakkinen wrote:
> All,
> 
> Looking for specs for an ideal computer system, I've seen a few links
> passed around and even looked at one site with details on what people
> were using however, nothing specific.  Can anyone point me in the
> direction of a site that lists the system from top to bottom... or can
> someone list a system top to bottom of what is needed for development,
> and viewing pleasure!  OS flavor?  
> 
> Also, there had been talk of burning the whole system to a bootable CD
> with all needed components... where might I read more on that?  Download
> images? Etc?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Michael
> 
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