[mythtv-users] first time HTPCer - double check me

Daniel Walton dwalton at cisco.com
Thu Mar 18 21:43:53 EST 2004


I own two ReplayTVs but I'm tired of waiting for HD capabilities so my wife and
I decided to build a MythTV box!  We are completely hooked on automatic
commercial advance so that is one of the big reason we are going with myth vs a
HD Direct Tivo or something like that.

I'd like to give you guys a rundown of what hardware we are buying, let me know
what you think.  Our goals are:

- record OTA HD and be able to watch a previously recorded HD show at the same
time
- play MP3s that are stored on a networked windows XP machine
- view pictures in HD, these are stored on the same XP machine
- if the picture quality will be better then record cable with myth instead of
replayTV
- play DVDs and archive recorded shows to DVD

Hardware
--------
- 65 inch Mitsubishi HDTV with component input (no DVI)
- Athlon Barton XP 2800
- ABIT AI7 motherboard
- 512M of memory
- MX440 nVIDIA GF4 VT8X 128MB video card
- HD-2000 tuner card
- Sony DRU-500a DVD burner
- 250G harddrive connected via USB 2.0.  There will be a smaller harddrive in
the box where I install the OS/MythTV.
- If the quality will be better than replayTV, then we'll buy a PVR-250 card.

Questions
---------
- I own a nice MX-500 remote, what do I need for the HTPC so I can control myth?
- Any problems having a hardrive connected via USB 2.0?
- What is the recommended VGA->component cable?  Is this the optimal way for me
to get component video out of my HTPC?

- Has myth considered implementing any show sharing features like ReplayTV has?
MPAA/RIAA was all over this at first, they shutdown planetreplay.com and
SonicBlue had to pull the feature from new units (there is a hack to turn it on
though).  Ever since then though things have been ~peaceful, there is a new
website for sharing shows (www.poopli.com) and shows are being shared all the
time.  Just curious as this is one feature of replay that I would really miss :)

- I've read that it is possible for a HTPC to play DVDs at higher quality than a
standalone DVD player.  Is this true and if so what is the trick to unlocking
this potential?

- If I record a show off a HD channel but the show really isn't in HD, will the
program still take up 9G an hour or will it take up as much as a regular digital
recording?

- Can I get better cablevision quality by recording with myth vs my ReplayTV?

- I'm planning on using KnoppMyth R4V2, will that work ok with all this
hardware?

- Any hardware that I'm missing or any of it that you would not recommend?

Thanks
Daniel



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