[mythtv-users] Re: Newbie needs help choosing hardware for use in the UK

[Nick Morrott]

> Living in the UK, 2 DVB cards seem to be the way forward.  Am I right in
> thinking that they all produce MPEG2 streams so no encoding has to be done
> in software?  I've come up with a 3 card shortlist all available from
> www.scan.co.uk (where I'll be placing an order for some unrelated stuff
> later this week.) They are ...

Along with many others, I am successfully using the Hauppauge Nova-T card
(rev 90009) which needed newer drivers than the older 909 model (even if the
box says 909, it likely now to be a newer version). Using with kernel
2.6.10.

In terms of disk space consumption, this varies depending upon the bitrate
of the transmission. For example, recording Beverly Hills Cop on ITV2 last
night (2 hrs) took up 2.8GB. Recording Adventures in Babysitting on BBC1
(1h45) took up 3.6GB. Working Lunch on BBC2 (30m) takes up around 800MB
usually.

I'm running a PVR350 card as my second capture card (connected to NTL cable)
which also is doubling as my Myth frontend connection to the TV using its X
driver.

> Do all these cards definately have suitable drivers?  I think I read
> somewhere that not all Nova-T's were the same.  I wouldn't want to end up
> with an unsupported variant.

See comment above - I got my 90009 version in November'04.

> Or should I just go for the cheapest?  Shouldn't the outputted MPEG2
stream
> be identical for each card?  The option to receive some of the top-up-tv
> channels might be good too.  Has anybody got this working yet?

I can't vouch for the others, but the Hauppuage does come (at least when I
bought it, there may be a new one now) with a remote that is very easy to
get working under Myth. No experience with TOTV.

> I'm hoping that the system will be capable of recording two programmes,
> whilst simultaneously letting me watch a previously recorded show on the
> xbox.  I don't suppose I'll want to do this that often but it would be
nice.

Because the DVB cards are just dropping the stream directly, the actual
transfer rate is very small, so this shouldn't be a problem, as long as DMA
is enabled on the disks.

> Since my MB only supports UDMA-2, I'm also thinking of buying an addon PCI
> ATA card.
> I'm guessing I won't need any soundcards in a DVB only system?

Only for the frontend machine need sound output as the DVB cards takes care
of recording both the video and audio streams. With the older framegrabbers
like my PCI WinTV Nicam the audio is piped into the soundcard to be
recorded.

> Wow, what a lot of questions!  I really hope that somebody can help me out
> with some of these.

I was in the same position a few months ago and the people in this group are
simply the best in terms of providing accurate, detailed and timely
responses to questions.

Using the search tool on the Gossamer Myth list (with the + option to make
sure words are included in a search) and google/google groups will help you
find out whether the same questions have been asked before (likely).

Cheers,
Nick



-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.6.11 - Release Date: 12/01/2005