[mythtv-users] New to HDTV; looking for advice

Jacob Steenhagen jacob at steenhagen.us
Wed Dec 5 17:52:29 UTC 2007


On 12/5/07, Steven Adeff <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> a P4 2GHz will be too slow on its own so you'll need the help of XvMC.
> The PCI card should work if you enable XvMC though. XvMC isn't a
> perfect solution though as many people have difficulty getting it to
> work well, and the overlays won't be in color on that card IIRC.


For some strange reason, when I put the PCI card in the 2GHz machine Linux
wouldn't boot anymore... As I recall, I was getting a kernel panic before
init.d stuff started to initialize. I'm not sure if my card is bad (it
worked when I took it out of the machine it used to run in a year or so ago)
or if it was just some strange interaction with the Dell and the onboard
Intel card.

If you do decide to use your 3500+ machine, XP should run fine on the
> slower box though I would suggest adding at least another 512MB or
> RAM. The 3500+ is fast enough to be used as a combined FE/BE as well
> without the need for XvMC (I had such a setup a while back on a 3200+
> and it ran fine with an pcHDTV3000 and a PVR-150).


I started installing the 64-bit version of CentOS on the 3500+ machine last
night. My biggest downside of this box is that it only has 3 available PCI
slots. If I put an HD card in, my PVR-350 card and my wireless NIC (I know
it's not really recommended, but it's pretty much just to retrieve guide
data), I'm full. Not the worst thing in the world I guess, but I generally
like to space my cards a bit for slightly better airflow.

As for HD tuners, I've got a pcHDTV 3000 and two Aver180's. But like
> what was suggested by matt I'd go with an HDHomerun now that it is
> available. Slightly more expensive but I'm pretty sure the consensus
> is if you can afford the difference and want two tuners (and really,
> who wouldn't) that its more than worth the money.


I'm still holding out to see what my friend is sending... I'm not sure what
brand it is, but he said that Linux does recognize it (he was gonna build a
MythTV box, but gave up). I can't say I'd ever looked at the HDHomerun
before, but that does look impressive. It would also help solve my PCI issue
:). I'm just not sure if I can scrounge up the $$ for it (the TV took a
decent chunk out of the bank account).

I'd also suggest a PVR-150 to connect to a cable box,etc. for
> capturing regular TV. Or if your cablebox has firewire and your
> channels are not blocked via 5C you can go that route too.


Even though I'm not using the TV out so it's kind of a waste, I still own
the PVR-350 so I'll probably continue to use that... though I might at some
point build a slave backend with the 350 for the bedroom TV.... though at
that point I'd imagine it'll be a bit harder to continue to run over
wireless.


Thanks for the responses !! :)


-- 
http://jacob.steenhagen.us
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