[mythtv-users] Building a system from scratch

[Harry Orenstein]

>From: "jack williamson" <jackwilliamson at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>Subject: [mythtv-users] Building a system from scratch
>Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 22:36:05 +0000
>
>Thanks for all of the information about the AverTV studio card.
>
>I think I am just going to start from scratch and build a new system.
>
>So what would you recommend?
>
>Distro?
>Processor?
>Video Card?
>Tuner Card?
>Motherboard?
>How much Memory?
>What about harddrive space?
>Remote?
>
>I want something I can build on and maybe use as both a front end and a 
>back end for a system in my dedroom.  I am looking the cleanest, easiest 
>setup.
>
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I use an Athlon XP 2000+.  I have a PVR-250 (MPEG compression
in hardware is the ONLY choice for an analog capture card as far as
I am concerned) and it seems a waste to get anymore horsepower
than this, plus Athlons are soooo cheap.

I have the ASUS A7V8X-X mobo and have never had any of the VIA
chipset problems that have been described on this list.  From what I
can tell, 512MB DDR is the best choice for memory.

Although I only have 80GB hard disk it seems that you can never
have too much disk space.  Buy all that you can afford.

I have the PNY MX400se w/ 64MB DDR and I am very happy with it.
It seems to be more than I need (though the benefits of PVR-350
output do occasionally beckon) and I only paid $20 for it AR.

As far as remotes are concerned, if you go with the PVR-2/350 then
you can either dump the remote and go for another method of
capturing the IR signals or you can stick with the built-in receiver
and either find a good RC5 emulation for a universal remote or
teach a learning remote a set of RC5 codes to use (you have some
flexibilty, there are plenty of RC5 codes and you can mix and match
them to come up with a sufficient number to provide all the functions
the keys on your learning remote can accomodate).

The one area I really don't feel qualified to offer an opinion is Linux
distro.  I use Mandrake 9.1 and have had no problems but I am a
noobie and I was looking for the quickest, easiest way to get Linux
up and running.  I realize how "bloated" Mandrake is, so my guess
would be that you would be better off with a "slimmer" distro.

Hope this helps!  I'm sure many others will weigh in.


-- Harry O.

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