[mythtv-users] New to MythTV, want to build it out....

[Ray Olszewski]

At 03:28 PM 6/8/2003 -0500, Cosimo Leipold wrote:
>         I would love to build myself a MythTV box. The problem is I can't
>seem to find any list of working configurations and setups. I look at one
>post that suggests the Hauppauge PVR 250, the next post says it won't
>work, etc.. Same deal for video out solutions... "Some old nvidia cards
>are supported" is a pretty sub par bit of documentation...

If you look at the list archives for the past few days, you will see some 
references to a database of configurations that someone maintains ... not 
specific to MythTV, but oriented toward video-capture-and-playback systems.

Because I do not think that database is quite complete for your purposes, 
here is the configuration I am running:

Hardware:

         Celeron 1.7 GHz on Gigabit Titan P4 mobo
                 (onboard sound disabled in BIOS)
         256 MB PC133 RAM
         system on old 8 GB hard disk as hda
         vidcap to 180 GB WD hard disk as hdc
         nVidia GeForce4 MX440-SE AGP Video Card with TV-out
         AverTV "Desktop TV PVR" card (the newer one, that does NOT have 
the SONY daughterboard - this is a slipstreamed change so I don't know how 
better to identify it)
         Soundblaster16 PCI sound card
         Linksys NIC (tulip chip)
         some old keyboard, mouse, and speakers
         black desktop case with 300W, P4-ready P/S
         display to a small (13") and old TV-style monitor

Software:
         Debian-Sid
         prepackaged Myth .deb packages
         alsa sound modules
         nVidia's proprietary X driver
         kernel 2.4.19, compiled locallt from Debian kernel-source package

MythTV set at defaults except:
         capturing NTSC, us-cable frequency set
         using MPEG4 encoding
         varying capture resolution (see below)

Problems with this configuration:

1. Watch out for the AverTV card. The one I described works fine, but older 
ones (with the daughterboard) failed (or caused the bttv driver to fail) 
about once every 2 days.

2. This system cannot quite keep up with "live" TV at the default 480x480 
resolution. At  320x240 it works very nicely and seems to work fine.

When run as a Myth host, I have only used these systems locally, that is, 
watching "live" or pre-recorded TV on the same system that does or did the 
capture. Using different capture software (vcr/avifile), I've captured DivX 
video that I've been able to access remotely (via Samba), edit on a Win2K 
host using VirtualDub, and watch on the same Win2K host.

I have a second system that matches this one except for the hard disks 
(which are a bit smaller) and the video card, a nVidia GeForce2 GTS 64 MB 
DDR 4x AGP Video w/TV-out. This one also works well, though I like the 
video card a tiny bit less (not for Myth reasons but because it does not 
activate TV-out on its own to show the boot/init sequence).

Is this specific enough for you? Is there additional information you would 
like to see (if yes, be specific)? I don't have prices at hand, but I think 
this system could be built today for about $400. (I didn't pay for the 
case, though, so that estimate might involve substituting a cheaper case.)

>         I would love to know what setups people have actually got
>working right, ideally the whole thing - this is my case, my mobo, my ram,
>my video, I'm using/not using onboard audio, etc. That way I can replicate
>that machine to a T, and rest assured that with the proper amount of
>fiddling I can get it to work. I've seen numerous posts of "Yea I had to
>ditch the card, I couldn't get it to work". I'd like to avoid that.
>
>         If anyone here has built a relatively low cost mythtv and would be
>willing to share what they've put in it I'd greatly appreciate it. If you
>could be specific on the pvr card and the video card that would be great.
>
>         Ideally, I'd like to eventually build whatever that person put
>together and document everything I did start to finish. From the install
>of the os, to compiling, configuring, testing - a howto that could take
>someone who wants to build a mythtv from scratch from "I've got a blank
>disk" to "I'm watching DIVX flicks off the network". If a document like
>this exists, please point me to it. I've looked but haven't found
>anything very detailed. Just wide steps (which is fine, until you run into
>a snag).