[mythtv-users] Newbie questions

[jose rubio]

On Wed, 2004-02-04 at 04:30, Thomas Börkel wrote:
> HI!
> 
> I am planning on building a MythTV box shortly. I have read the hardware
> comments in the docs and also a bit through the list archives, but I
> have still some questions.
> 
> This is what I want to be able to do:
> 1. record 2 shows at the same time
> 2. if possible, watch one of those or an older recording at the same time
> 
> 2. is not a must, but would be nice to have.
> 
> As hardware, I could think of:
> - P3/866
> - 1x PVR-250, 1x PVR-350
> - Soundblaster card
> - some cheap VGA card
> 
This is my setup except for I have an Athlon.  It rarely goes past 5%
usage while recording two shows and watching an old recording.  That's
the beauty of the pvr-?50.

> or
> 
> - Celeron 2.4 GHz
> - 2x PVR-250
> - onboard Audio
> - NVideo GeForce with TV-out
> 
And this is what I had before (except only one 250).  Tv-out off the 350
is MUCH better.

> Would both hardware constellation be OK for my requirements?
> 
> 
> I have read, that the PVR-350's MPEG2 decoder output has some 
> "limitations". What are they?
> 

Right now you can't use the 350's tv-out for DVD playing, game playing,
or mythvideo.  It is my belief that the people at ivtv are working on
the dvd and the video parts...

> Is it OK to only have one hard disk (100 GB UDMA/100 Western Digital)?
> 
It's ok but you'll fill it up. (2.2 Gigs / hr. show)


> Should the hard disk have 7200 rpm?
> 
I don't think the speed will be a problem until you get to three or four
pvr cards.


> What filesystem should I use? Is reiserFs OK?
> 
I use ext3.  IMHO they all will work fine.

> If recording from analog TV, what bitrate do I need to get an MPEG2 that 
> is almost identical to the source? Thinking of the noisyness of analog 
> TV, I could think about 6 MBit or something.
> 
Got me there.


> Thanks!
> 
> Thomas
> 
> 
-jose-