[mythtv-users] Hardware explanations

[Vincent K. Britton]

Sorry about the GHz thing.  When I read the How-To it stated that you
need about 1 GHz per card to encode.  Obviously this wouldn't be the
case with the PVR250's as it has the onboard encoders!

An additional question that I came up with is how to control your
digital cable box for recording?  I have many channels that are only
available with digital cable.  I know you would have to use the
component or SVideo connections to record from this source but does how
does one turn it on and change the channel with mythtv?  Also does
recording from these sources utilize the onboard encoder of the PVR250?

Thanks again for you guidance!
Vince

-----Original Message-----
From: Torsten Schenkel [mailto:mythtv at isl.mach.uni-karlsruhe.de] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 2:40 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Hardware explanations

Am Di, den 17.02.2004 schrieb Vincent K. Britton um 22:31:

> 1)      I plan on getting 3 or 4- PVR350ys or PVR250ys cards as the
> Hauppauge seem to be the most supported by myth.  The question that
> remains is that in reviewing the Specifications Chart on the Hauppauge
> web site it appears that the only difference between the 2 cards is
> that the 350 has a MPEG2 Decoder when the machine they are installed
> in doesnyt directly display any video?

Well, then you won't be able to use the decoder :-)
There's an FM tuner on the 350 which will most likely be supported in
the future, so if you plan to listen to radio, you might want one of
them. The rest can be 250s without any sacrifce whatsoever. 

> 2)      With 4 PVR#50ys do I need to upgrade to a dual CPU machine?

What's this GHz-mania about? With 4 pvrx50 you'll need about 1GHz worth
of Intel/AMD cpu cycles. It's all i/o, the card is doing the work. Your
chipset has to be supported, that's all.

> 3)      I also intend to get a pcHDTV card for HD recording.  Will
> programs that I record with that card in HD play on my Standard
> Definition TV connected to a different front end machine?

Don't know about that, I read somewhere ATSC was < 20Mbit, so no problem
on TP100.

> 4)      Speaking of the front end machine I have found the XBOX Mod
> that makes it into a front end machine.  I would love to utilize the
> inexpensive hardware of an XBOX for my front end units.  Does anyone
> have experience running this?  I get the impression that it will work
> fine for Standard Definitions but not High Definition even though the
> XBOX is capable or HD out.  User experiences would be greatly
> appreciated!

With pvrx50s you'll need the cpu cycles on the frontend more than on the
backend. An Xbox is reported to work fine for standard TV, and while it
can display HD resolutions, I doubt it's up to the decoding task.

> 5)      Should the XBOX front end be more trouble then it is worth, I
> would be interested in hearing experiences or recommendations
> regarding Minimyth on the Via EPIA M systems.  Is this little gut
> capable of HD Output at 1080i?

Same as the Xbox, the Epia has H/W mpeg2 support, so this may help, no
idea though.

For HDTV you might want to put that 3GHz processor into the frontend.

> 6)      What are the network bandwidth requirements for viewing?  Does
> the backend server Stream to the front end units are the front end
> units caching?

Capture bandwith plus tcp/ip overhead, yes and presumably yes.

> Additionally I would like to know if any of the following assumptions
> are incorrect
> 
> 1)      PIP (Picture in Picture) is built in to the myth application
> and is independent from the Televisions PIP.  Availability is
> dependant on the number of tuner cards or sources on the backend
> server.

Yes

> 2)      Myth uses its own GUI independent from GNOME or KDE. 
> Therefore I wouldnyt be able to load another application to access
> streaming audio or anything.

Yes, but you're free to use whatever you want to stream, watch or
listen, it still is a linux system. It won't be integrated in myth, but
I can watch recordings on my workstation using mythweb and mplayer.

Torsten
-- 
Walkthrough: MythTV on Epia with PVR350 using Debian:
http://www-isl.mach.uni-karlsruhe.de/~hi93/myth/mythtv_debian_epia_pvr35
0_walkthrough