[mythtv-users] mythtv hardware plans

[Brian Wood]

On Feb 3, 2007, at 2:17 PM, jason maxwell wrote:

> I've got plenty of time, no hurry. Good advice from everyone so  
> far, Thanks.
> The pcHDTV cards are designed specifically for Linux (and not
> windoze), which makes me smile, so the extra bucks are worth it to me.
> AFAICT, the 5500 will work for HD and SD channels, so no need for a
> separate analog only tuner.

I agree about supporting folks who support Linux.

You should be aware that using those cards as analog tuners requires  
a lot of CPU because they are just straight frame grabbers, all the  
compression/encoding has to be done by your CPU. The PVR cards have  
on-board MPEG-2 encoders and thus take almost no CPU. You might well  
be disappointed with the analog performance of the HD 3K/5.5K cards.

Plus it's a "one or the other" proposition, you can't switch on the  
fly easily. Think seriously about a PVR for analog signals.