[mythtv-users] Moving to HD

[Bob Shanteau]

Thom Paine wrote:
> I just picked up an HD tv, and have upgraded my Bell satellite to HD as well. I have just powered off my myth system as I bought a hard drive for the satellite to make it into a PVR.
> ....
> My capture card in the BE is a Happauge 350. I realize I'll need to replace this to move to HD.
>
> With only picking up an HD card for the BE, would I be able to move to HD on my system and have it work ok?
>   

You'll need a way to get the TV signal from the Bell satellite STB into 
the capture card. What are the outputs on the STB? You will want a 
capture card or USB dongle that will receive the HD signal in as high a 
quality as possible.

> I will move my satellite to the basement, and just have myth control it and manage recordings, and then only watch recorded shows on my FE which is on my 40" Sony Bravia.
>   

How do you plan to have your MythTV box control the STB? Does the STB 
have any way to change channels other than the IR remote control? If so, 
you may want to explore that. Otherwise, you will want an IR blaster do 
the job.

For that matter, what IR receiver are you using on your FE now?

> Will the FE drive my TV at 1920x1080? Do I need to pick up a new video card for that as well? The one main reason I'd like to keep the FX5200 is because it's fanless and I like how quiet my FE is.
>   

What Playback Profile are you using now (Utilities/Setup->Setup->TV 
Settings->Playback Screen 3)? VDPAU is nVidia's super-duper MPEG 
decoder, but to use it you would need a 8400 card or above, which in 
turn requires a motherboard with a PCI-Express 16 slot, whereas it 
sounds like you have AGP, right? I have had good luck with using the 
CPU- or High Quality Playback Profile with an nVidia FX5200 card and a 
reasonably fast CPU.

> It's time to overhaul my myth setup so I'm planning on wiping everything and starting new on CentOS back and front.

As you've noted, you'll be rebuilding your mythconverg database anyway, 
so you are free to use any MythTV distribution you like. I use MythDora 
12.23 and highly recommend it.

Bob Shanteau