[mythtv-users] New setup

[Ray Olszewski]

At 07:00 PM 5/19/2003 -0400, Lev Pertsov wrote:
>I would like to put a PVR solution together with my old AMD K6 700Mhz machine.
>Can anyone recomend a decent hardware to make it possible?

Probably not. Over the weekend, I tested the performance of a Celeron 533 
for video capture (using vcr/avifile set for 320x240, a setup somewhat less 
demanding on the CPU than Myth). Recording, it dropped almost 20% of 
frames,  almost all in the encoder (only a tiny number in capture).

A AMD K6 700Mhz is a bit better, but probably not enough to make a decent 
record-only spstem (in the Myth world, a backend) and certainly not enough 
for a one-host combined backend and frontend.

This would make a nice frontend, though, if it has, or you can add, a 
suitable video card (assuming you want TV out, that is).

>I have researched a bit about ATI AIW 7500 that seems to be a good card

Not for use with Linux. Read the list archives for details.

>  or Hauppauge TV something?

I like the Hauppauge WinTV GO, their cheap card. Unfortunately, they 
recently converted from the bt878 chip that Linux supports to a new one 
Linux does not yet support. So unless you can find an old one, that won't work.

I've also used the cheap AverTV cards, but my results have been 
inconsistent. Newer cards (without the SONY daughterboard) have worked 
reliably, but older ones (with it) would fail occasionally ... once every 
day or two ... with the standard bttv driver. rmmod'ing, then modprobe'ing 
bttv corrected the failure, but nothing would record until I took this 
step. (BTW, this is a slipstreamed change; I can't find any difference in 
model idenfitiers on the boxes.)

>What's the best working solution?

Best for what price? I like my solution OK, but others have much better 
ones (for which they spent a lot more money). There is no one, right answer 
to this question.