[mythtv-users] Some questions before I breakout the Mastercard

[Jarod C. Wilson]

On Mar 16, 2004, at 23:35, Kevin D. Snodgrass wrote:

> First, here is what I would like to do.  I'm planning on building one 
> new machine to replace my 4 VCRs (plus 1 that is currently 
> non-functional).  I would like to do this with a single computer (but 
> might do the frontend/backend arrangement), and this computer will be 
> used exclusively (or nearly so) for this purpose.  Here is a quicky 
> schematic, hope this looks right. :-)

Quickie? That looks like it took some time... ;-) Good work though. 
Should be fine with that setup.

> Questions: (If you can only answer one or two, go ahead.  I don't 
> expect anyone to know the answers to everthing I ask.)
>
> 1) On a PVR-250, can I have two inputs, one coax cable and the other 
> S-Video or composite?  The pics look like it, but the online docs 
> don't answer diffinitively.

Yes, you can.

> 2) Would I be better off using a video card for playback?

Maybe. For standard-def TV, the PVR-350 output has the highest quality, 
though there are some stability issues (most of which are either now 
fixed or getting fixed). It doesn't work so hot for anything *but* 
standard-def TV though. And it'll never support output of a High-Def 
signal if you're thinking about going that route in the future.

> 2a) If so, what video card(s) will give me the highest quality 
> playback?

A GeForce 4 MX is more or less the de facto standard. Both my 
production systems use one (one uses SVideo out, the other 
VGA->Component video adapter to my HDTV).

> 2a1) And, if so to that, do embedded graphics systems have decent 
> playback?  My laptop with a Rage Mobility 128 does fairly well (to the 
> laptop LCD) so I assume ATX systems with a modern graphics chip will 
> also.  (Assuming driver issues don't bite me...)

I'm rather happy with my nForce2 board, w/onboard GF4MX.

> 3) Which Linux distro would be a good choice?

The one you're most comfortable with.

> I see several people using Fedora, but am dubious about using Fedora 
> because of the short lifespan.

Don't be. Fedora is excellent, and so is the community support.

> I have been using Red Hat since RH 4.x, so I might spring for Red 
> Hat's workstation distro.

RHEL3 WS? There's really no need. And nobody maintaining all the 
required packages for it, so you'd have to build lots of stuff 
yourself, which is somewhat counter-productive for an RPM-based distro, 
if you ask me. ;-)

That said, I'm working on getting MythTV onto one of my RHEL3 systems, 
just for kicks (I didn't buy it, I rebuilt the entire thing from srpms, 
made my own CDs, etc -- WBEL is another alternative for $0).

> Suse 9

Asking for trouble. One of the most problem-plagued distros for MythTV.

> Debian unstable

That's what many of the core developers use. It works, and I've used it 
myself, though I got annoyed with the differences from Red Hat (been on 
RH since 4.x also).

> KnoppMyth (is it installable?)

Yes.

> and Gentoo are also up for consideration.

My second favorite distro behind Red Hat/Fedora. (#3 is SuSE, not that 
it matters). Lots of folks use it, and it works great, but you'll be at 
it for a while.

> 4) I have read there may be issues with MythTV (or ivtv or ??) and 
> kernel versions 2.6.x.  Are these resolved?  I would very much like to 
> use kernel 2.6.x for built in SATA and better chipset support.

Patches exist for 2.6.x. There's really no need to go 2.6 though, and 
definitely no need for SATA. But to each his own. I use a single 
ATA/100 drive for a 3-capture-card setup, and a 2.4-series kernel.

> 5) Speaking of chipset support, which chipset should I get?  NForce 2 
> (AMD), 875P (P4) or ATI's (P4)?  VIA and SIS just seem to have too 
> many problems.  The new ATI chipset looks very intersting, but is 
> there support for it in Linux? NForce 2 has issues also, but they seem 
> to be less of a problem if using the closed source NForce drivers from 
> NVidia.  Onboard LAN must work.

nForce2 is my personal favorite. Problems only crop up with 
APIC-enabled kernels, though I understand there's now a patch to remedy 
that. My master backend system is on an nForce2 running Fedora Core.

> 6) From what I read the PVR-[23]50 cards embed the sound in the MPEG2 
> stream, so if I use a 350 for playback I don't need a soundcard, 
> correct?

Not for TV, no. For everything else, yes.

> If I do, onboard would be nice, if it can reproduce good surround 
> sound quality output.

Most standard-def TV signals don't have spiffy audio anyhow. Though you 
definitely want something good for HD and/or DVD/Divx.

> I realize if I use a video card for playback I will have to use either 
> a soundcard or onboard solution.  PCI slots are going to be scarce.

You're talking about possibly wanting 4 capture cards, so you'd want to 
get a 6PCI/1AGP board, which would leave two free PCI slots for 
whatever you like, even if you have 4 capture cards and a video card. 
The only other route would be a micro-ATX board with 4 PCI slots, but 
most of them have garbage onboard video...

> 7) If I use a PVR-350 for playback I would like to locate this machine 
> in a different room.  What output formats does it provide?  I think I 
> have read that it has S-Video and composite outputs.

Correct.

> What is the max distance for these?

I have no clue.

> 8) Anything else I should consider?

Probably, but nothing comes to mind right now. I'm tired, time for bed. 
;-)

> My plan is to get at least a 3GHz processor

Optimal for HD.

> 1GB RAM

Overkill. 512MB should be plenty, but RAM is cheap. Both my Myth boxes 
have 512MB (but my workstation has 2GB now =).

> 2 large SATA disks

SATA is overkill, though cable management and airflow is much better. 
But the drives are also hotter, which is detrimental to quiet 
operation...

> and a DVD burner.  Might even go with SATA RAID 5, if I can get 4 
> disks attached.

Are your TV recordings really important enough to want to use RAID 5?!?

> (Do any motherboards have 4 SATA headers?)

Yes.

> I'm not afraid to spend money to get what I want

Me neither. Just don't tell my wife. =)

> but I really don't want to waste money on something that doesn't work 
> well.

Copy that.

> Bottom line is it must work very reliably.  I'll be near Reindeer 
> Lake, Manitoba Canada fishing for lake trout in early June, right in 
> the middle of the hockey playoffs.  No cable TV up there, and no 
> Internet connection to ssh into the system and deal with anything that 
> gets borked.  That gives me about 2.5 months to get this thing built 
> and working.  Plenty of time, but I also my be buying a business at 
> any time, and that will seriously cut down on time for tweaking.

My master backend system (nForce2/Fedora) has an uptime of 30 days, the 
last restart being for a kernel upgrade, with an uptime of about 60 
days before that, the restart back then also being for a kernel 
upgrade. In short, its rock-solid. I haven't missed a single thing I 
scheduled to record for as long as I can remember. You can see the full 
specs of my systems at the 2nd page linked in my sig.

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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