[mythtv-users] Need Help in setting up MythTV system

[clemens at dwf.com]

I hope this isnt a duplicate,- I had some mail problems here yesterday
and everything that I sent seems to have been lost.  So here we go again.

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Ive been reading the MythTV lists now for a couple of months, and Ive read 
whatever
else I can find that is pointed to by the MythTV / pcHDTV sites, but if 
anything,
I'm confused.

And the more I read, the more confused I get.

I suspect that SOME of the confusion will go away when I have a machine to run 
MythTV
on, but first things first.  Although Ive bought a pcHDTV card, my current 
machine
(a 733MHz Pentium III) is 'full up' with cards, so I'm going to have to buy a 
new
machine to experiment with MythTV.

Whatever the machine, it will be running Linux, at the moment my preference 
would
be for Fedora2 with a 2.6.x kernel, since thats whats on my other machines.
INITIALLY I will be viewing the result on my Computer monitor,
later to a standard TV, and still later to a HDTV.

>From what Ive read, its not clear if I'm going to keep all of MythTV on one 
machine,
or split it between two, so for now Ill go for all the horsepower I can afford
and we'll see about a 2nd machine later.

OK, so I see LOTS of recommendations, but lets lay it out and work thru the 
list.
I will need

    (1) PCBox, Powersupply, Fans
    (2) MotherBoard (w/ Disk controllers & ethernet)
    (3) CPU, Fan.
    (4) Disk(s)
    (5) TV Card(s)
    (6) Video Card
    (7) Sound Card
    (8) DVD recorder
    (9) IR Remote

So, here's where you can start making recommendations.

(1-3) BOX, MOTHERBOARD, CPU.
My first thought would be to get a local shop that I have dealt with before to 
put
together the bare bones machine, viz (1)-(3).  I would expect a Pentium 4, 
2.8-3.2GHz.

For other experiments, I would like a CPU with MultiThreading, but remember 
seeing a
chart (which I cant find at the moment) that showed the heat output from the 
various
processors.  The 'slower' machines output 85w, the 'faster' 115w.
The cost difference between seems to be about $60 for 2.8->3.0 and 3.0->3.2 so 
cost
would not be a factor here.  I would rather stay with the lower heat 
processors,
but am not sure if that conflicts with the desire for MultiTasking.  anyone?

Ive never put a machine together from scratch before, but if it was obvious I 
was
going to actually save some money that way, I would consider it.

Ive seen plenty of comments about 'quiet boxes' and I can remember having a 
aquarium
air pump in the living room that just drove me up the wall.  As noted, I'm 
willing to
ignore that problem up front while I'm experimenting with MythTV in my office. 
 So a
'quiet' PC Box is not a necessity.  Basically I will either get a 2nd machine 
later
with only the playback (Video/Sound)Card in it so its heat dissipation will be 
less and the
powersupply noise should go down too, or Ill do what I did with the air pump,- 
put
it in my walkin closet which is directly behind the TV, and run the cables thru
the wall...

As for MotherBoards I would probably stay with the INTEL D875PBZ, as thats 
what I have
on two other machines at the office.  Comments?

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(4) DISKS
This could be the simplest, most generic choice.
Any reason to worry about rotational speed?
Any reason to worry about transfer rate (ATA/100, SATA/100, SATA/150)?
I'm guessing one disk for the OS, I usually set aside space for 3 or 4 5GB 
partitions
for different OS revisions, and space for several versions of MythTV.  Thats 
still a
'small' disk these days, 60-80GB.

In addition 150-300GB for TV storage with room for more disks.

I see numbers like 200GB / $139 ATA/100  7200RPM
                   250GB / $159 SATA/150 7200RPM

Considering the most recent disk I bought, I would assume that this 3-1/2" 
drive would
be mounted in a 5-1/2 slot in the box, mounting it in a tray with extra 
cooling fans.
Unless there are some strong objections, this will depend on whats on sale 
when.

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(5) TVCard
As noted above, the only part of this project that I have in hand is a pcHDTV 
(2000)
card.  I may at some point add a second card (a 3000?).  I currently record TV 
with
2 VCR's,- If there is ANYTHING decent on, its always across from something 
else I want
to see...).  thoughts?

It seems to me that the PVR250/350 series of cards are going to be obsolete 
within
a year so I have not considered them.

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(6) Video Card
I know *nothing* about video cards so I can really use some help here.  Cards 
these
days seem to have ENORMOUS amounts of video memory.  I can understand some 
extra, but
wow.

In any case I have seen references to TVout in addition to monitor out (ok)
Ive seen references to MPEG2 support.
Ive seen references to Direct 8 support.

What are people using, and why?
I can understand the first requirement above.
The 2nd is a bit more iffy, if in fact you re-encode things on disk to MPEG4 
for
better compression.

The third, well, Ive never heard of X11 having a requirement for (or ability 
to use)
Direct 8, so perhaps this was with respect to some PC software.

So any and all suggestions will be appreciated here, and if you can say WHY
you prefer a given card, all the better.

Of course, I understand that this is a fast changing field (video cards) what 
with
the gamer community, so this weeks best card may not be next weeks best card...

Ive also seen references to 'external adapters' to convert VGA -> NTSC but I 
don't
think I've ever seen one of these advertised.  Any pointers here?

Please, I need HELP on deciding on a Video Card, as I am clueless...  .
Suggestions please

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(7) Sound Card
It looks like something like the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 would be appropriate.
I currently have a Sound Blaster Live! (not 5.1) on my current system and it 
works
fine for what I need.

The Audigy 2 cards look interesting, but they are a considerably more 
expensive,
and Ive just been thru an experience of trying to get one (the PCI version not 
the
USB version) working with Linux, and it was a lost cause.  Maybe in another 6mo
or a year...

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(8) DVD Recorder
All the (+/-) formats are confusing.  Is this just going to be a continuing 
problem
like VHS/Beta forever, or is one set of specs starting to take over?

And Recording speed.  I just read an article that said, independent of how 
fast the
recorder CAN record, don't record faster than 4x, or you'll probably end up 
with
a disk that is unreadable.  Well not totally unreadable, but with unreadable 
sections.

And double layer (is that the term?)  Seems that twice the capacity  WOULD be 
nice,
but the media is still quite expensive.  thoughts

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(9) IR Remote.
It appears that some of the TV Cards (the Hauppauge cards), and some 
MotherBoards,
come with an IR Remote, but the pcHDTV doesn't, so Ill need a free-standing IR 
here.
There must be free-standing units.  Recommendations?
Or perhaps a different MotherBoard?

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                                                Reg.Clemens
                                                reg at dwf.com