[mythtv-users] Which tuner card? Can you make a recommendation?

[David Woods]

> I'm new to MythTV and Linux and would like a recommendation for a tuner
> card.  I've been using ReplayTV with the auto commercial advance, and just
> saw a demo of MythTV.  Looks great!  Here's my question...  Which tuner
> card
> should I use?  I've looked at the list, and seem Hauppauge is the way to
> go.
> Only problem I can't easily tell what the difference is between the
> models.
> Can you offer some assistance?
> 
> I was thing of the PVR-550, but it doesn't come with a remote?  Don't you
> want a remote?  Looks like the PVR-350 has some audio issues and is the
> only
> difference between the 150 and 250 an FM radio?
> 
> Can you offer a suggestion?  (Not looking of HD.)  I think an onboard
> encoder makes more sense on the tuner card makes sense, right?  Or am I
> missing something?
> 
> The box I want to use is a Dell OptiPlex GX110 P-3, 1.0gig with .5 gig of
> RAM and an integrated video card.  From what I have read, that should
> work,
> right?
> 
> I plan on using the easy build version of Myth.  From what I've been told,
> it should build a system in about 30 minutes.  Sound about right?
> 
> Would appreciate it If you could get me going,
> Thanks

I recently built a MythTV system on a 1Ghz GX110 with 256MB of RAM.  I have
an old NVidia graphics card rather than the integrated card (came that way
(used), don't know why.)  So we have very similar hardware.

I use a Hauppauge PVR-150, and I added a large hard drive.  (I don't know
the distinctions between the Hauppage cards are either, but was advised that
the 150 was more than adequate.  The 500 has dual tuners, if that's
important to you.)

I used the Myth(TV)ology instructions (http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/), which I
found very detailed and accurate.

Starting from scratch with the Fedora Core 4 installation, the whole process
took several hours to get everything working.  But I'd screwed something (I
still don't know what) up, and the back end kept crashing.  I started over
again, and the process went very smoothly (and faster!) the second time.
Now everything works perfectly, and I'm very happy with it.

Good luck.

David