[mythtv-users] Advice for under-tele box?

[Ciaran]

For what its worth, i'm using a Pundit(s) with 2xNova-T DVB cards
(also in the UK)  Much quieter than the X-box but still not silent. 
good enough for me :) It offers svideo/composite/vga outputs but not
scart or seperates ( I doubt you'll find a card or motherboard that
does)

I'm happy with my pundit.  The picture oculd be a little crisper but
thats probably the TV not coping with s/video rather than the output
itself :)
- Ciaran


On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 10:52:51 +0100, George Styles <george at ripnet.co.uk> wrote:
>  
> Hi, 
>   
> The recent death of my Tivo prompted me to press on with a 'proper' myth
> system (before I was just using Myth to grab tv shows to encode for my
> palmtop). 
>   
> Ive finally got my myth system working in client server mode (a PC based
> backend with 2xNova-T cards running Mandrake, and a XBox as the frontend
> running GentooX. Both with almost current CVS versions of myth). 
>   
> The xbox is a temorary solution to test the girlfriend acceptance factor
> (she hated my Tivo at first, but it soon became 'her' tivo). 
> Assuming she is happy with the UI, I will be looking to build a always on
> under TV box. 
>   
> This is because the XBox is a) noisy and b) frequenty used for games (gasp!)
> so is rebooted and c) a _little_ underpowered for it (it only has 64 meg of
> ram). 
>   
> Im looking for a PC that has the following: (I am in PAL land (UK)) 
>   
> a) Smallish / good looking (maybe a shuttle?) 
> b) Powerful enough to decode MPEG2 (I have DVB cards) 
> c) QUIET (the most important factor!) 
> d) Has SCART output with RGB out (I think the Americans call it component?).
> Composite output from a video card is very poor quality compared to the XBox
> connected via SCART RGB. 
> I think the RGB output may be the hardest to achieve, although I read
> somewhere that you can con some video cards into outputing at a frequency
> that TVs can accept. Any insight/experience? 
>   
>   
> e) preferably with a remote control (although I can add that later if
> needed) 
> f) As cheep as possible :) 
>   
> I dont believe that I need a very powerful system (i think the XBox would be
> powerful enough if it has a little more ram) so Im thinking around the
> 800MHz to 1GHz mark (any more and cooling becomes a problem). 
>   
> Finally I am considering trying to boot it from compact flash to save on
> hard drive noise, but that is a 'later' project. 
>   
> I assume many on this list have already built such a box, and am interested
> in experiences of others. 
>   
> I am not interested in a device that can just 'play' MPEG over the network
> as I want the full Myth GUI. 
>   
> Also, a couple of PCI slots would be nice so I could maybe move the a DVB
> card or 2 into it and use it as another backend (but I realise that this may
> be incompatable with my 'small' requirement) 
>   
> Any comments appreciated 
>   
> thanks 
>   
> g 
>   
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> 
> 


-- 
- Ciaran
http://www.wombatinvasion.com/ (Share the love)