[mythtv-users] Hardware questions

[Keith C]

I'm pretty new too, but I have a system working so I'll take a stab.

On Mon, 2003-08-25 at 20:44, Reid Peryam wrote:
> I'm building this computer in order to act solely as a TiVo (for the 
> immediate future). Here goes.
> 
> 1. Where the hell can I buy this PCI "video encoder" that is talked 
> about on MythTV.org's website? Haven't found one yet.

Couple of different options : hardware encoding or software encoding. 
If you get a Hauppauge PVR 250/350, you'll have hardware encoding
built-in to your TV tuner card.  This takes a lot of load of the
processor and you could use multiple cards to do multiple recordings at
once without stressing out your processor.  You can get an OEM version
of the 250 on eBay for about $100 new in the bag but it has no remote. 
They retail for $149, but I got mine for $99 after rebates a month ago
at Circuit City.

> 
> 2. How good of a sound card should I buy? I was thinking of going 
> cheap, but then I was thinking that if the entire signal is going to be 
> coming from the computer to the television, I should probably have 
> something that can sound pretty good (6-channel for option of speakers).

Look at how you'll be moving the sound to your stereo system.  Got a
digital input into your amp?  Find a compatible digital out on a sound
card that works with Alsa. You get the picture - figure out how you're
going to hook it up and buy a card that matches. 

> 
> 3. Is a video card important at all? The encoder will probably be 
> pushing all of the bits, I'm thinking. I was thinking of going with two 
> separate cards, a video card and separate PCI TV tuner. If Graphics 
> aren't at all important then I'm thinking that an AGP 4x/8x motherboard 
> isn't needed?

Not that important.  The Geforce4 MX 440 is popular here because of the
clean TV out signal and good linux support.  I've got a Geforce4 Ti
4400, and it works great, but it is not worked very hard at all by
MythTV.

> 
> 4. Is the TV tuner important at all? It seems as though all you need it 
> for is the coaxial line-in port. Any other things I should look for 
> when buying it or is bare bones good enough?
> 
Answer is same as #1, really.  If you want to offload, get the PVR
card.  If you want to use processor muscle, get the cheaper card.  The
PVR is a little limiting because the output is always MPEG2, but the new
transcoding option in MythTV gives you options for reencoding to save
space or use the files in other apps.

> 5. Hard Drive. The website says about 2 gigabytes/hour while recording. 
> For some reason this seems really low to me. Is that for a smaller 
> resolution? So the drives are all pretty cheap, but what I'm thinking 
> of is that if I had a 10,000 RPM drive (≠ 7,200) fast forwarding and 
> track marks would respond *much* faster. There is a huge price 
> difference though and the max capacity for a 10,000 RPM drive is only 
> 36 megabytes. Maybe one 10,000 rpm drive for main usage and a residual 
> 7,200 drive for spill over? I doubt I'd be recording more than 10 hours 
> at a time (length of two football games), even over vacations. Any 
> thoughts?
> 
Not sure how much speed difference you would notice with a faster
spinning drive. The cache is important, I'm sure, as well as the overall
back plane speed.  36MB is pretty skimpy once you get your whole system
built, especially if you put any music on there at all.

> 6. Linux. I've never done a thing in Linux but have experience in 
> UNIX... anyway I'm hoping to learn. Also -- Red Hat, Madrake, Debian 
> etc. -- which is right? MythTV seems to suggest that Red Hat has a 
> bunch of settings that are naturally in conflict with it that need to 
> be modded, yet Red Hat seems to be the most popular version. I was 
> gunning to install the barest of Linux OSs on this computer as I'm not 
> using it for anything except TiVoing, MP3s, and maybe a few games.
> 
I tried Debian, and although I was impressed with it and the power it
gave me, I was not enough of a Linux expert to make it work (close, but
not quite).  Redhat 9 was easy for a single reason : Jarod's guide.
http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=rh9pvr250#apt

> 7. Is more than 256 RAM worth it?
> 
For the cost of it, I'd never build a system with less than 512, but if
this is solely a MythTV box, I don't think you need more than 256.

> 8. Will I be able to record two separate channels at the same time? If 
> so do you think I should dual process it? What other components will be 
> affected?
> 
Check the PVR answer again :)  With tuner-only cards, you'll need about
1 GHz per stream.  With PVR cards doing their own encoding, stick as
many as want in it.  You'll need a tuner card per stream as well, of
course.

> This is so much more expensive than buying a TiVo but it's going to be 
> a lot more fun!
> 
It has been fun.
Good luck,
Keith C

> Thanks!
> 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> 
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users