[mythtv-users] My first MythTV box

[Greg Vickers]

Hi all,

I am building a MythTV box out of a P3 system I have:
http://www.msi-computer.de/produkte/bare_idx_view.php?Prod_id=101

It is a slimline system so it will fit in our A/V cabinet and has a P3 
800EB CPU (Coppermine), 512Mb of RAM and a 40Gb laptop HDD in it. For 
the meantime I'm trying to set it up to play existing media off my 
fileserver, which is in another room. The fileserver has an AMD 1800+ 
CPU in it. (They are currently connected via 54Mb WLAN, I will run a 
100Mb LAN wire sometime.)

The media PC will reside in the lounge with the other A/V gear and this 
is where the Optusnet cable TV set top box is.

All I want to do is capture off the Optusnet feed, I don't want to 
capture TV signals due to very poor reception.

I'm looking to get a hardware video de/encoder (which has to fit in the 
limited amount of space available - 150mm length) since it's a low-power 
CPU.

I have a few questions:

1) Can I have the capture card(s) in the frontend and have the database 
etc on the AMD where the processing power is?

2) From looking at the MSI web site and the Intel processor finder site 
(http://processorfinder.intel.com/Default.aspx) the fastest 
Coppermine-core CPU is a 933MHz - is it going to make a huge difference 
getting one of these and upgrading from the 800MHz CPU (133MHz FSB) that 
is currently in it?

3) I know the Hauppauge 350 is too long to fit in this case - can anyone 
recommend a hardware de/encoder which is shorter than 150mm?

Thanks,
Greg