[TriLUG] Myth TV - need some pointers

[bidwell]

Greg Brown wrote:
> Hey everybody.  I'd like to build a Myth TV box, two actually.  I'd like to
> have one box at home in Raleigh and one on the outer banks.  Here's the
> catch - I'd like the box in Raleigh to be able to send contact to the OBX
> box via some kind of encrypted tunnel or so I can watch shows recorded here
> out there.  And vice-versa.  I imagine this is possible with Myth but I'd
> like to the definitive answer if anyone knows.
> 
> Other Myth questions:
> 
> 1. What distro is "best"?  Debian?  Redhat?  By best I'm looking for the one
> that "just works".  The Myth box will likely be a dedicated machine (perhaps
> a ssh and squid host as well, but that's about it).  Thoughts?
> 2. I read somewhere that the TV listings were going away and this was going
> to affect Myth boxes.  Has this been addressed?
> 3. What kind of hardware am I looking at?  Being a dedicated machine I'd
> like something that looks like it belongs next to a television.  A fat disk
> is a must, but I have no need to burn content so an included DVD burner
> isn't necessary (besides I could hook one up via USB I suppose).  However if
> the thing already comes with a DVD burner that's cool.
> 
> Any other info you can provide is great,  Thx.
> 
> Greg
I've made three myth boxes now.  I can only speak to my specific
experiences, which are probably a little different then others.
All my boxes have been over the air.
Use whatever distro you are comfortable with.  I don't think there
is anything that just works out of the box because myth does not
run on a single set of approved hardware. I use Debian.
The tv listings thing has been taken care of.  Go to 
schedulesdirect.org.  It's $15 for the first 6 months, then they
will adjust the prices.
Here is my current set up, capable of doing HDTV over the air:
  Antec Solution Series NSK2400 Black/Silver Steel MicroATX Desktop 
Computer Case 380W ATX12V v2.0 Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811129014
  ASUS M2NPV-VM AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131014
  AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+(65W) Windsor 2.4GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 
AM2 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103749
pcHDTV 5500 HD capture card
http://www.pchdtv.com/
And a recycled drive out of my previous box and a NEC dual layer
burner.
That particular motherboard has a built in Nvidia card and firewire.
The Nvidia is important if you want to playback hdtv.
Previous to this box I had been using low power via motherboards, which
was fine for SDTV, but an upgrade was needed for HDTV.
As someone else said, you probably don't want to transfer big files
over home connections.  I would get a portable drive with firewire
and make sure both machines have firewire.  Or make sure the one
that does the majority of recording has a dvd burner and transfer them
that way.  With the two capture cards I've owned, the Hauppauge pvr-250
and the phHDTV5500, they've both recorded in mpg, so you can record in
myth on one box and playback in mplayer or xine on another.
Well I hope that was helpful.
Matt