[mythtv-users] Sony Vaio, perhaps?

[Marc Randolph]

Howdy Dan,

On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 9:21 AM, Daniel Dunning <dan3501 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> [...]
> Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive - This is marketed specifically for video playback.

Such a drive may actually have worse performance and less cache than
their other drives, or that of a competitor.  The term "video
playback" is simply something that a marketing droid slapped on
somewhere along the way to help sell their products.

The "Green" WD's are more than fast enough, if that's the route you
want to go down:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/15769

I'm not saying you should choose the WD over the Seagate.  I'm simply
saying that marketing words mean nothing compared to specs.

> And its $10 cheaper too.

IMO, peanuts in the grand scheme of things.  Sure, I love to save $10
if/when I can.  But if I can get considerably better performance,
lower power, or higher quality, I'll eat the $10.

> Another quick question.  I got the recommendation for two capture cards from
> another website. I am using Verizon Fios.  What does having two capture
> cards provide for me? Is this the means by which I can record two channels
> at once?  Is that even possible going through the STB?  Can I do this with
> just one card since it appears to have two TV tuners on the card itself?  I
> have to admit that the TV Tuner part of pulling this configuration together
> is really confusing to me.

I don't have FiOS, but I believe it is the same as my cable:

If I want to record two channels at the same time from anything except
the locally available channels, I need two STB's in addition to the
two capture devices (likely two HD-PVR's, although that requires
running non-released MythTV 0.22).

If I'm willing to live with being able to only record only one channel
"from cable", I'd only need one STB, one capture device (HD-PVR).  In
parallel, I could run an over the air tuner (likely HD Homerun) for
the major stations.

If the wife could live with only local stations, I could get just the
HD Homerun and not have to worry about the set-top boxes at all.

   Marc