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

zaphod at comcast.net zaphod at comcast.net
Tue Aug 5 18:14:38 EDT 2003


<Editorial>
Your looking at $260 processors and $170-$300 DVD drives for your box and $150
is too much?  Switch that to a 2G Celeron for $67 and the savings will pay for
TWO (2) Hauppauge Freestyle PVR card (ivtv-compatible).  True you don't get a
remote, but you get better RCA audio inputs (IMO).  Besides the Hauppauge remote
is good for little more than proof of concept . . . 
</Editorial>

Value added content follows:

My 2G Celeron/Pundit is fine playing back PVR250 streams, with 65-70% CPU IDLE.

I am currently having issues with live-tv freezing.  I believe its an
out-of-memory issue related to the play back cache.  Currently have 256MB less
8M shared video memory.  top typically shows less than 5000K free while watching
live-tv, one extra process spawn (for whatever reason) and you freeze the playback.

The machine is not locked or frozen, still responds to ssh and alternate shells
(Ctrl-Alt-F2).  Given enough time, or remote button fiddling the front-end will
recover without crashing.

Should I just bump the memory, or should I try something else.

-Eric

> 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
> 




More information about the mythtv-users mailing list