[mythtv-users] Updating my machine for mythtv

[J. Donavan Stanley]

Rick Gregory wrote:

>
> - PVR-250 or 350? The 350 seems problematic at this point and I really 
> don't want to spend days getting it to work. Is there any HUGE reason 
> to go with the 350 vs 250?

The 350 gives you an MPEG2 decoder and TV-Out.  The 250 is an encoder 
only.  The only reason to go with a 350 is to safe CPU cycles decoding / 
displaying MPEG2 content (i.e. recordings).  If you transcode to MPEG 4 
to save space it does you no good.  You'll get no benefit from it for 
your archived DVDs..

>
> - Will the CPU above be OK with one of the Hauppauge cards? I'm 
> assuming that the PVR cards offload virtually all of the encode/decode 
> burden, so the modest processor would be fine? Is that true?

A modest processor is fine for encoding but you may have serious issues 
without some sort of hardware assisted decoding (i.e. 350 or xvmc).  Can 
you currently play MPEG2/4 content on that box?


> - Along similar lines, is there any reason to upgrade the current 
> video card given that I'd be using one of the Hauppauge cards?

If you're using a 250 you want a card that can do xv at least and xvmc 
with that CPU.