[TriLUG] mythtv ramblings and a questions about december mythtv presentation

[Myrhillion]

David,

Thanks for the post, missed this before I made a few new posts.
I'm feeling more comfortable about my older hardware now.   I think the 
only obstacle at this point is deciding
on which PVR-XXX to actually go with...

However,

I just spoke to a friend today, that has a pvr-350 and a pvr-250 in the 
same rig usin ga p4 1.4ghz.
He had initially used a pvr-250 and had some trouble with getting the tv 
to display the output properly.
This is why he added the pvr-350.

I'm wondering if there are particular graphics cards I should be wary of 
regarding using in conjunction with one pvr-250.
yes yes, I should probably be trolling the mythtv forums for this info, 
but you folks have been so helpful.

David Rasch wrote:

>I've recently setup a MythTV machine with a Duron 800Mhz and a WinTV PE which 
>requires software encoding of video.  This machine functions perfectly well 
>when recording at a reasonable resolution (352x240).  The picture is quite 
>nice and the user is very happy.  The only point here is that I'd be very 
>suprised if this processor were unable to handle a capture card using 
>hardware encoding since it can handle software encoding and playback/decoding 
>simultaneously.
>
>-David
>
>On Monday 21 March 2005 16:28, Myrhillion wrote:
>  
>
>>Hmm, I hadn't realized how "cheap" relatively the athlon xp's have
>>become (haven't built a rig in a while).   I might just have to build
>>a whole new computer for this project  (*laughs maniacally*).
>>
>>However, I'm wondering if the duron 800 I have will do with a hauppauge
>>PVR-250.
>>Do you have any problems recording and watching a totally different show
>>with your setup, even when it's like
>>timeshifted to skip commercials?
>>
>>Anyway, I'm getting more excited about actually doing this from the
>>feedback I've received from the list.
>>I had actually read up on the FC3 mythtv howto you mentioned.  It seems
>>a bit complicated but doable.
>>
>>I may still stick with gentoo for the distro.  I'll have to sign-up to
>>that myth user list next.
>>Thanks for info Ken, it's appreciated seeing what other folks are using.
>>
>>Doug Taggart
>>
>>Ken Mink wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>I just finished building a MythTV box a couple of months ago. I'm now
>>>using it full time. I'm very happ with it and rarely switch over to my
>>>TiVo.
>>>
>>>I'm using a 2600 Barton processor(overkill) and 512MB RAM. I bought a
>>>Samsung SP160N HD. The Samsung drives are QUIET. I mean I thought the
>>>drive was DOA when I installed it because I couldn't even hear it spin
>>>up. The motherboard is an ASUS A7N8X-VM/400. I'm using it's built-in
>>>Geforce4 w/tv-out and it's built-in sound. I'm also using a Hauppauge
>>>PVR-250 as a tuner.
>>>
>>>I went with FC3 as a base and used the ATRPMS repostitory for the myth
>>>installation. There's a great how-to for installing MythTV on FC. As
>>>long as you read and follow it carefully, you'll have MythTV up and
>>>running in no time.
>>>
>>>As for your question about the PVR-250 vs 350. The 350 has it's own
>>>tv-out capabilities. This includes a built-in mpeg decode. Both cards
>>>have encoders. The theory is that with a 350, the card does both the
>>>encoding and decoding and your cpu doesn't have to get involved. From
>>>what I've read, the 350's tv-out can be a pain to configure. On the
>>>myth-users list, I see a lot of people that have 350s, but don't use
>>>it's output capabilities.
>>>
>>>Good Luck,
>>>Ken
>>>
>>>On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 11:50:02 -0500, Myrhillion <lug at blackwizard.net> wrote:
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Hello,
>>>>
>>>>I have recently gotten interested in building a mythtv box.
>>>>I checked my trilug messages and found there was a meeting in December
>>>>which featured mythtv.
>>>>Drats, I've missed my opportunity.
>>>>
>>>>Does anyone know if the presentation is available online somewhere?
>>>>I'd like to discuss what people have for hardware too.
>>>>
>>>>Here is the basic machine I'm considering.
>>>>
>>>>I'm considering recycling an athlon duron 800 with 512 mb ram.
>>>>I'm thinking gentoo or a debian based distro like ubuntu for the OS.
>>>>The machine by itself would be too slow so,  I'm going to buy a tv card,
>>>>probably a hauppage (sp?) wintv 250 or 350.
>>>>Has anyone seen any benefit of the 350 over the 250 in practice?
>>>>   Any other tv tuners people have been impressed with to use for this
>>>>purpose?
>>>>I'll be adding a larger hard drive, probably 200gb range.
>>>>A wireless nic so I can save some of the shows I want to keep to a
>>>>larger file server and to grab the xmltv feed.
>>>>This will also make it simple to keep downstairs with the stereo tv etc..
>>>>
>>>>Doug Taggart
>>>>
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