[mythtv-users] Looking for initial advice.

[John Drescher]

> I currently do not have a mythtv system, but I am in the process of
> deciding what pieces of hardware I need to create one.  I am making a
> bunch of assumptions throughout here because I am VERY unfamiliar with the
> technologies and terms of video and audio (MPEG-2, SDIFF, etc).
>
> I live in the US, currently use cable service, have an HD TV, subscribe to
> their HD-tier, and send the audio output through digital out into my
> stereo receiver for 5.1 surround.  I'd like to be able to build a system
> where I don't lose any of that functionality.  I realize that some of the
> HD channels that are in the HD tier may be unavailable if it's encrypted.
>
Depending on your cable system nearly all of your HD and digital
stations will be encrypted. At least for me I only have 4 or 5
unencrypted feeds + a few movie preview channels with Comcast.

> (2) Video input cards.  The HOWTO lists several different HD tuner cards,
> but says none of them do any encoding.  Does that mean that when it's
> recording the input from the cable that it will have to encode using
> software when writing to disk?
>
I believe the HD signal is already encoded in mpeg2.

> (3) Video output card.  ATI, NVIDIA?  Is one choice better than the other?
>  I've read some things about drivers, etc.  Also, Do they have models that
> will output to 1080i or 720p?
>
I would say a nVidia card will give you the least grief as I believe
they have by far the best drivers but I know many here will
disagree...

> After hardware, I have a few questions regarding the general setup:
> It sounds like it's a good idea to go with a 2 machine setup.  One as the
> backend that records, stores, and manipulates all the shows and one that
> will pipe the recordings/live-tv to the television/receiver.  Is that
> correct?  Would it be better to put both video input cards on the backend
> machine, or put one on the backend and one on the frontend?
>
You need to have a backend running on any machine that has an input card.

John