[mythtv-users] hardware recommendations?

[Steve Adeff]

On Monday 19 December 2005 12:05, Chris Trown wrote:
> Kichigai Mentat wrote:
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> > On Dec 18, 2005, at 16.00, Jeremiah Jester wrote:
> >> My goal in setting up a MythTv box is too capture true HD from my
> >> comcast digital recorder box and play back through my tv. My  question
> >> is what video and sound cards would work well together for  this task?
> >>
> >> I've read that the Haugpage 350 does a good job. But is the onboard
> >> audio out digital? If not, can I still use a different sound card  to
> >> beef up the audio quality?
> >
> > Well, I'm no expert on HDTV, but I can already tell you you're on the
> > wrong track.
> >
> > The Hauppauge PVR-350 is a standard definition MPEG-1/MPEG-2  digitizer
> > and tuner. It has no HD capabilities at all. Neither in  recording or
> > playback. Also, I don't believe the PVR-350 has optical  out. However,
> > the use of the PVR-350's TV-out is entirely optional,  and you'd
> > probably be better off with an nVidia card with MPEG-2  acceleration,
> > especially for HDTV, and a good sound card with your  digital out.
> >
> > Look into the pcHD 3000 (I think that's what it's called), an HD card
> > specially designed for Linux, but that won't help you with what you
> > want. There is no known way to capture HD content from an HDMI/QAM/
> > Component/DVI connection. The only known way to do what you want is  to
> > use the FireWire port on your ComCast box, you just need to be  sure
> > that your cable box will work like that.
> >
> > Good luck.
>
>       It is my understanding, and I'm sure that someone will correct me
> if I'm wrong, that the FCC requires local HD stations to be unencrypted.
>   Also, Firewire support is required by the FCC.  Though you may have to
> call the local CableCo to get that turned on.

the FCC requires that cable companies provide OTA analog signals untouched 
over their cable lines. This does not include HD though because HD is 
considered a digital OTA signal as the law is written.

Firewire is required by the FCC, but cable companies are open to require 5C or 
any other form of digital rights management.


> >> Also, I'm using ext3 Filesystem....is this working ok for anyone else?
>
>       Should work.  I use ReiserFS.  Look long and hard into using LVM.
>   HD takes a lot of disk space and being able to span multiple hard
> drives to get one big partition is nice.
>
> Chris...

should be no problems using ext3, might not be the best, but what is best is 
arguable, so whatever... 
The other option is to move the recordings you want to save to another HD. 
Theres a perl script or something to do this so that you still see it in the 
Watch Recordings screen, but I forget what its called or where it is...

-- 
Steve