[mythtv-users] New user setup questions?

[Alex Van Deusen]

I am ready to begin building a mythtv environment.  I have a few questions 
before I get started.

I currently have the following
Toshiba H8016x9 TV,  It has component inputs only  ( I intend to purchase a 
transcoder for vga to component video and use powerstrip)  Zenith DTV 1080 
HD Direct TV Receiver with SPDIF.
27" RCA TV with Svideo,  Sony BT55 DirectTV
19" Samsung Flat Panel DVI monitor/Analog
12" Sony with only cable RF

I have purchased (1)  PVR-250, (1) Wincast TV (848 chipset)
I am also going to purchase a PCHDTV, and other cards depending on answers 
from you!

My questions are as follows.

1. I love the HD TV that is delivered from the Zenith HD DirectTV box. ( I 
live directly across from NYC so I get all the HDTV channels available)  I 
could never ever go back to standard TV watching if I don't have to.   The 
guide  integrates the ATSC with Satellite channels and is great for 
previewing TV while I watch other channels.
a.  I know that I will not be able to capture HDTV from the HD DirectTV,  so 
I will need to purchase the PCHDTV.  Will the guide be integrated within 
Myth.  Will it remap channels (sub channels) ie CBS is 56-1 to 2-1 etc.....  
Can I choose to exclude channels that have no signal?
b.  The quality for the main TV is paramount.  I know that DirecTV is highly 
compressed so will I be able to capture that in at least 720x480. ( I am 
sure the answer is yes). Can I scale that with FFDshow or Dscaler.
c. For the HD broadcast will I be able to capture full 1080i for 2,4,11 and 
720p and 480p for ABC and Fox.
d. How does the sound work.  The Zenith has optical out and analog out.  I 
have purchased a Mad Dog card with the Envy chipset and it has optical in 
and out.  Do I need to even bother with the optical in to get DD 5.1 for HD 
broadcast or Direct TV.  Will the capture card(s) just send the data over 
the PCI bus?  Or would I need to plug the optical in from the HD DirectTV 
into the soundcard in and route optical out from my soundcard to my 
receiver?
e. I intend to build separate backends and front ends.  Therefore what is 
the best configuration for this system.  I concerned that the PCI bus won't 
be able to handle all this from a central mammoth server.  So I have 
different scenarios which would make more sense?

Again image quality on the main RPTV is paramount.
        i. build low end front end pII 333mhz  with a (new purchase) PVR-350 
that has Mpeg2 Hardware Encoder/Decoder and a PCHDTV for HDTV.  I       
would use a Radeon 9600xt or Geforce Ti200 for graphics card.  I would use 
the Envy card for audio.  Lirc with a low speed data serial connection.
        ii. or I would need much more powerful front end 2.6 ghz machine at 
least for HDTV.  Then I could run just a PVR 250 in a backend.
        iii dont need to run anything on frontend except graphics card, so i 
could go lowend with a nic card and pull everything from the backend of (2)  
      PVR-250s connected to (2)DirectTV's and a PCHDTV
        iv.  does the slave backend need a graphics card?  Or could I load 
up an old box that has scsi and ata 133 with multiple drives and just the    
       capture cards.
        v.  can I even use the Wincast TV card.   It has composite video out 
and analog out.  Coud I use this without a graphics card?  Will that be good 
enough on the 27" TV.
        vi.  If intend to build a frontend only for the 27" TV and the 
bedroom small TV do I need anything except for graphics card and sound cards 
in those machines with minimal drives (9 gigs).  What is the minimum configs 
for front ends like this if I have a big backend with (2)PVR 250 and PCHDTV?
        vii I like to channel surf and don't intend to completely Timeshift 
all material.  So if I wanted to watch Direct TV in one room while my wife 
records something on another TV and watches Live TV is this possible. Or 
would I need to have three PVR-250 connected to three DirectTV.    Same 
question for PCHDTV.  Would I need to have two PCHDTV to watch LiveTV and 
record.  Would that crush the PCI bus? Does the box need to be superpowerful 
for dual PCHDTVs


Your thoughts are greatly appreciated...  Detailed responses are very 
helpful.   I have been reading the boards for months.

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