[mythtv-users] MythTV looks incredible

[Joseph A. Caputo]

On Monday 13 October 2003 03:06 pm, James Pifer wrote:
> Hi. I have been looking for a DVR to run on Linux for a while. I came
> across the web site last week and it looks awesome. 
> 
> I've searched the mailing list and read a bunch of stuff, plus looked
> over the web site. I do have a couple questions (or verification) before
> I go buy cards for this. 
> 
> I tape a lot of shows using VCR's and the playback quality blows, which
> is the big reason I want to do this. I also want to playback on my home
> theater (Infocus X1). 

If you have a good-quality VCR (especially one w/S-Video out), use 
good-quality videotapes and record at the best quality setting on your VCR 
(usually 'SP'), then I doubt you'll see much of a picture improvement by 
switching to a PVR.  Garbage in, garbage out, as they say... 


> So, I need a tuner card plus a video card that supports Video out. 
> For cost/performance break point and known supported cards I'm looking
> at:
> Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 Tuner (want MPEG2 for DVD's)
> AGP Geforce4 MX440 DDR64 w/TVout
> (My system is an Athlon 1.2Ghz with 1 GB SDRAM)
> 
> Looks like I can pick the cards up on ebay for somewhere around $150.
> 
> Assuming I have everything right so far, my only concern with this setup
> is how much am I going to miss having the remote control when watching
> the recordings (or live TV) on my home theater? Any comments to that?

The PVR-250 comes with a remote; see the mailing list archives for issues 
people have had getting it working.

Also, you say you want MPEG-2 for DVDs... what exactly do you mean by this?  
If you mean you would like to use your Myth recordings to author DVDs, then 
yes, you should be able to do that with the appropriate DVD-authoring 
software.  If you're talking about ripping DVDs, then you don't need anything 
besides a DVD-ROM drive, lots of CPU and time.

-JAC