[mythtv-users] two and one

[Clint Byrum]

On Tue, May 13, 2003 at 06:12:29PM -0700, Chris Petersen wrote:
[snip]
> 
> like many others, I initially wanted one because I don't trust the
> financial stability of replaytv (I didn't want a tivo because it doesn't
> do broadband, and I don't want to give up my phone line so the box can
> call in and get program listings).  Plus, I wanted something that would
> play my music (much of it in ogg/vorbis format).
> 

I pretty much have the same feeling as Chris... although there's one
other thing: Getting under the hood. Its nice to be able to go read the
mythtv code.. to grab the cvs and tweak it a little.

> > Spec'ing out a Athlon/shuttle/WinTV-PVR/IR box, I can't quite seem to make
> > it cost less than a TiVo + a year's service, so I'm trying to figure out
> > why it's still really alluring to me to try building one.  Figured asking
> > why it's alluring to other people might help illustrate it.  
> 
> my setup:
> 
> $165 - Asus Pundit

After reading your post I looked these up. They are pretty cool! ;)
Are all of the onboard components supported?

> $170 - p4 2.5Ghz (I started with a 2.0 celeron, but wanted more speed)

Just curious... what did you need more speed for? Planning for something
more demanding? HDTV anyone? ;)

> $130 - Seagate 120Gig 7200.7 drive (quietest on the market)
> $70  - 512Mb RAM
> 

I took a different approach than other people did. My setup:

Backend:
Dual Athlon MP1900+ (Tyan S2466N-4M) running Debian sid.
512MB PC2100
80GB 7200rpm Maxtor ATA/133 Drive.
Hauppage WinTV connected to Hughes DirecTV "Oh my god thats a cheap
receiver" receiver.
IR solution: ????? I need some sort of solution, more on this in another
post. Can't change channels right now :( .

Frontend:
PIII 550 on cheap old Asus motherboard running Debian Woody.
128MB PC100
13GB 5400rpm Maxtor ATA drive (working on setting things up so this
parks itself after bootup).
Wireless Logitech USB keyboard (Yes this is bulky, but it definitely fit
my budget of $0 right now).
LinkSys 802.11b PCMCIA card stuck in generic PCI PCMCIA adapter board.
GeForce2 MX 400 w/ S-video out.

Right now I don't run any sort of encryption over the 802.11b, but that
will change if I can justify the extra load of IPSec. The wireless
segment is seperated from the wired segment via a linux firewall, so it
should be cake. ;) The system works *great* except that I can't change
channels yet on the DirecTV box. 

I'm a geek, so I already had all of the hardware listed above, collected
from various garage sales and of course the Dualie is my main
development workstation. The only things I had to buy were some s-video
and A/V cables. The frontend box is ugly as hell, but it hides behind my
subwhoofer and needs not be seen. It is super quiet, being a PIII. The
dualie is like a jet engine, but lives in a room at the absolute other
end of the house. :)

[snip]
> 
> once I bit the bullet and grabbed the rpm's, installing myth was REALLY
> easy (about 5 minutes).  getting my vid card working was a little more
> difficult, but that's because I'm working with really new hardware and
> there just isn't that much info out there about it.
> 

Same here, except I grabbed some apt sources.list entries, instead of rpms. ;)

[snip]