[mythtv-users] Information/Recommendations on a new MythTV

[Dewey Smolka]

> Hello all,
>
> I am looking at building a Myth-TV system from my current gaming box. I
> have done some research and found that the nForce2 chip sets (and from
> what I have seen nForce4 as well) have problems under Linux. I have also
> read up on Myth-TV hardware and read that VIA chip sets are to be
> avoided. I am thinking about replacing my current nForce2 based
> motherboard with a Foxconn K7S741GXMG-6L
> motherboard. This has a SIS based north and south bridge as well as an
> AC97 audio card on board. With this motherboard I was thinking about
> getting Hauppauge WinTV PVR-350. Are there any known problems with these
> pieces of hardware that make them undesirable?

I haven't heard any problems with Mythtv and nforce boards.

AC97 audio will work automagically but is, on my system at least, a
bit noisy. The Turtle Beach Riviera (~$30) works out of the box with
much better sound reproduction and no noise at all.

The PVR-350 is probably not worth it, and nobody is currently
developing Myth for use with the 350s onboard decoder. With the menu
system having moved to OpenGL as of .20, you'll be better off with a
PVR 150/250/500 for capture (SD-only) and an nvidia gfx card (gf4,
fx5x00, fx6x00, etc) for display.

>
> On the software side of things I have heard that getting MythTV to run
> under Debian Testing is hard. Should I just go to something like
> KnoppixMyth? I would prefer to stay with Debian testing as then I could
> still use my box for Web Browsing and IMing and email too.
> Any information/assistance/recommendations on these issues are
> appreciated.

There are a lot of very specific and bleeding edge bits and pieces to
Myth. It doesn't really matter what distro you use, but you'll save
yourself a lot of headaches by building a Myth machine from a clean
install rather than trying to fit it into an existing system and
finding that Myth works but foo, bar, and somesuch are all now broken.

Knoppmyth has been based on Knoppix, but as I uderstand it is moving
towards an Ubuntu base instead. Both Debian, but slightly different
flavors.

Of course regardless of your distro, you'll still be able to run
browsers, IM clients, email clients, etc. If you're comfortable with
Debian you might as well give it a try. I believe the Ubuntu debs are
already out for .20 but I think Debian binaries are still .19.