[mythtv-users] my experience with Asus Pundit / PVR 250

Tue Aug 5 11:00:55 EDT 2003

> I was also thinking of getting a DVD burner for archiving purposes.
> Does anyone have any suggestions?  I really havn't bothered doing any
> research in this front...

I also am looking into getting a DVD burner.  The site I am using to compare
drives is http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters.  Currently I am leaning
towards Sony DRU510A.  I have seen it for about $250 retail.  Anyone have
this drive?  any thoughts?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Reza Naima" <reza at reza.net>
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 3:12 AM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] my experience with Asus Pundit / PVR 250

> Thanks for the write-up.  I just ordered a pundit and the LeadTek
> tv2000xp deluxe.  I tought about the pvr, but $150 was too much for me
> to spend, and I never get rebates back in the mail.  I'm trying to guage
> how much processing power I will need -- esp as I hope to get another
> capture card in there.  I'm thinking of a 2.8G p4.  I'm also hoping that
> some some case modding will solve the size issue (tight fit for PCI
> cards).
>
> I was also thinking of getting a DVD burner for archiving purposes.
> Does anyone have any suggestions?  I really havn't bothered doing any
> research in this front...
>
> -r
>
> On Mon, Aug 04, 2003 at 11:48:03PM -0700, Eric Gardner sent me this...
> > I just built a MythTV box using an Asus Pundit and a PVR 250.  First, I
> > want to echo the sentiments of other recent users. This is a tremendous
> > application.  Thanks to an active developer and user community the
> > installation was virtually painless.  I followed the mythtv-users
mailing
> > list for a couple of weeks before deciding on the Pundit with a PVR 250,
a
> > 2.4 GHz P4, a 120GB Barracuda, and 512MB PC2100 RAM.  For the time being
> > the box is serving as both a backend and a frontend but even so it's
> > probably a bit overbuilt.  I thought that I'd summarize my experience
with
> > the build process and the system performance on the off chance that it
> > will help someone else wishing to build a similar box.
> >
> >
> > General Pundit/PVR Comments
> > ---------------------------
> >
> > First off, I was pleasantly surprised that except for the front cover
the
> > case is entirely metal.   I would have liked for the front to be metal
too
> > but given that nowhere on the Asus sight could I find mention of the
case
> > material and also given the low price for the included features, I'm
> > fairly happy with the build quality and appearance.
> >
> > I wasn't quite as disappointed by the PVR remote as I expected to be
given
> > what others were saying about it.  It's not great but I've used worse.
> >
> > The Pundit is a bit noisier than I would have gathered from the comments
> > of others.  I enabled the quiet CPU fan mode in the BIOS but even at low
> > speeds the fan is noiser than I would prefer and that's even when the
hard
> > disk is not spinning.  Because of the noise I was asked to move it out
of
> > the bedroom down to the home theater in the basement.
> >
> > The PVR card was extremely hard to get into the Pundit case.  I had to
> > temporarily bend part of the metal case to get the card in there. If I
had
> > a good pair of tin snips I probably would have permanently modified the
> > case.  It's not just getting the card into the box that is an issue.
> > After installing the card I tried bending the case back to its original
> > state but the card causes the side of the case to bulge slightly.  Asus
> > should definitely consider increasing the width of the box by 1/4"-1/2"
to
> > accomodate typical PCI cards.  With this one change I'd be much more
> > likely to recommend this configuration to others.  As it stands, this
> > card/case combination is neither for the faint of heart nor the
> > mechanically challenged.
> >
> > I originally went with a P4 2.4 because I wanted enough headroom to
later
> > add another capture card.  However, given the difficulties of getting
one
> > PVR into the case and the low CPU load (see below) if I had to do this
> > over again I'd spec a cheaper CPU.  At some point I'll probably put a
> > lesser CPU into it and turn it into a dedicated FE and I'll move the
> > current CPU into a larger case with a second PVR for a dedicated
backend.
> >
> >
> > Build Process
> > -------------
> >
> > I decided to stay simple at first and just go with the Myth 0.10 rpms.
At
> > some point I'll try compiling CVS but for now I'm simply enjoying a
mostly
> > working PVR.
> >
> > Jarod's instructions for building a MythTV box with RedHat 9.0 and a PVR
> > 250 helped a great deal.  I did encounter a couple of small problems:
> >
> > 1) I had difficulty getting the custom ATrpms kernel because the version
> > had changed from that mentioned in the instructions.   I managed to dig
> > around and find what I needed.  The next day I was getting ready to send
> > Jarod email when I noticed that the instructions had been updated to fix
> > this.
> >
> > 2 l had to reinstall the broadcom driver for the NIC after installing
the
> > new kernel.  I still haven't figured out whether this was really
necessary
> > or whether I was doing something wrong.
> >
> > 3) I also had difficulties getting lirc to build because the
instructions
> > for copying the appropriate kernel config to the right location were
> > missing.  This too was fixed in the instructions the next day.
> >
> > 4) Two of the settings in the suggested .lircrc seem backwards to me.  I
> > switched the settings for the "Skip" and "Replay" keys so that my
.lircrc
> > now has the following:
> >
> >
> > ----------
> > # Fast forward (default in Myth is 10 minute segment)
> > begin
> > prog = irxevent
> > button = SKIP
> > config = Key Page_Down CurrentWindow
> > end
> >
> > # Rewind (default in Myth is 10 minute segment)
> > begin
> > prog = irxevent
> > button = REPLAY
> > config = Key Page_Up CurrentWindow
> > end
> > ----------
> >
> >
> > System Performance
> > ------------------
> >
> > I've set Myth up to record at 720x480 using the hardware MJPEG at the
> > highest quality setting.  Running 'top' I've managed to get the CPU load
> > to go as high as 45% but that's only when jumping around ridiculously
> > during playback of a recording.  More typically during playback the CPU
> > load hovers between 1-5%.  During recording the CPU load is typically
> > 8-11%.
> >
> > Currently I've got pretty bad broadcast TV (the cable guy is coming
> > Thursday morning) so it's a little hard for me to evaluate the picture
> > quality.  I have experienced some intermittent lockups but nothing very
> > critical or hard to rectify.  I also notice occasional hiccups (1/2 sec
to
> > 1 sec picture and sound stutters).
> >
> >
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> > _______________________________________________
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>
>

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