[mythtv-users] Newbie questions...

[Jason Rhodes]

Have a look at a 915 chipset board.....you may find the ones with
onboard broadcom(tg3)gigabit lots of usb/1394 etc....onboard ICH6
sound...alsa 1.0.8 + works with it..no midi support yet tho

I just got 1 with 2 gig of ram and a pvr 150 sub $1200 Australian
dollars

350 has tv Out on it....id say pvr 150/250/500 may be better value to
you as your not outputting from the backend..

VIA boards are not recommended...915 boards works fine so far...i can
record 2 channels and transform also

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Bargabus [mailto:ben_b at ppdonline.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, 25 May 2005 12:48 PM
To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
Subject: [mythtv-users] Newbie questions...

Hi Folks,
I'm brand new to the MythTV world, I've been lurking here for a day and
read the HOWTO but haven't yet touched the software.  I have MANY
questions but I'll stick to just the few that are most pressing to me in
this first post.

I'd like to experiment with this in a system with separate machines for
back and front ends.  I'll be purchasing hardware for the backend but
trying to make do with mostly spare parts on the front end.  First of
all I'm interested in comments any of you have regarding the hardware
I'm looking at for the backend...

MoBo/CPU:
Chaintech SPT800 Motherboard and Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz Processor
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Edp
No=1209284&CatId=1235

Harddrive:
Seagate's Barracuda 300GB (Model: 7200.8)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Edp
No=1388892

Tuner Card:
Hauppauge PVR-350
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=473901

DVD/CD Source:
NEC ND3520 16x8x16x DVD+RW, 4x DVD+R DL, 48x24x48x CD-RW
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Edp
No=1337277&Sku=N27-1876

Other stuff:
1GB DDR400 RAM, Rackmount Case, LinkSys Gigabit NIC

It appears I can get all that stuff for a little under $1000.00 and from
what I've read it should be capable of handling the load and then some. 
Anyone see holes in my plan so far?  A couple specific questions about
my hardware...

1) that mother board uses VIA chips, I've seen warnings about their DMA,
is that a problem of the past or should I go with an Intel chipset
board?

2) my backend will be handling record duties for scheduled programs but
won't be playing anything back directly, I kind of got the impression
that the PVR-350's advantage was in decoding as well as encoding, should
I save some money and go with a PVR-150 or 250?

3) is a single gigabit NIC going to handle the network traffic necessary
for high quality video?  What about when I expand my network to four or
five front ends?

I think that's enough of the questions for one email.  I'll hit you guys
with my front end questions once we tackle these. :)

Thanks for your time,
Ben.