Hi,
I'm getting ready to build a box just for MythTV and despite reading the
docs and browsing the forums, I've got some relatively newbie questions
still and would also appreciate any feedback on the proposed setup I'm
planning. I'll probably start with a 1 encoding machine as both front and
back end, but I'd like to get to a 2 channel encoding backend w/ multiple
front ends. I might though want to do 2 channel encoding and 1 channel
decoding that can get multiplexed through my video distro system over coax
(e.g. on channel 3).
Hardware
=========
I just ordered a Dell 4550 w/ the following specs for $480 (after rebates,
discount, and fatwallet.com):
- Intel P4 - 2.66 ghz (533mhz FSB)
- 256 DDR2700 Ram (Do I need to upgrade to 512 for dual channel encoding?
- 30 gig drive (I might swap this out for a 10 gig drive for the OS and
then much bigger drives for video storage once I verify recording quality)
- DVD+R/RW drive - Can MythTV / Linux burn DVD's? If not, I might swap
this out for a dvd player and then put the DVD+R/RW drive into a win2k box
for exporting / archiving shows (smallville, enterprise, etc...). It would
also be cool to have the DVD drive so I can watch DVD's (progressive?)
directly through the machine or maybe even rip the movies on to it so I'd
have an immediately accessible movie archive (especially for all of my
kids' videos).
- ATI TV Wonder (PCI) - I currently have this card in another machine using
Snapstream. It seems like this should work for now so I will put it into
the new machine when I get it. If the WinTV PVR-250 works better, I will
probably get this for sure for the 2nd encoding channel. If it does work
better (mostly concerned w/ recording quality, not drive space) then I'd
love to see the ivtv drivers support 2 of these in 1 myth-tv box. If the
ATI card works well though, I might try to use two of these and assume that
2.66 ghz should be enough to handle encoding 2 channels.
- Sound card - integrated sound - I'm not sure if this will do, but if not,
what would people suggest? I've heard that SB Live works ok and I've got
this in a couple other machines, so I might start cannibalizing then. For
2 channel encoding, do I need 2 separate sound devices?
- TV out - The machine will come with an nVidia 64mb geforce 4 card w/ TV
out. I also have a gforce2 card w/ TV out - would that work better? My 65
Mitsubishi also supports a 640x480 vga input - is that also an option? I'm
basically looking for best possible quality w/ 'normal' components.
Software
========
Linux - I haven't built a Linux box in like 10 years, so I'm totally out of
touch w/ the latest distros. I was assuming I'd go with RH9 (probably
easiest to install and I'd figure on getting the latest version). But
since most people seem to use RH8, should I go with that? I can go w/
others (Debian, Gentoo) if people say it's less problematic, but I'd rather
not spend a lot of time pulling out hair over setting this up.
MythTV - Should I get the .8 version or build from CVS?
Another general question is whether the web interface allows me to control
what the myth backend(s) has scheduled for recording. Would this be one
website where I can pick shows to record for both encoding channels? Or do
I need to go to a different website / URL for each recording channel or for
each myth back-end?
I'm expecting this box to come in a couple days, so until then I'll keep
reading the forums to get ideas of what's best to set up. But thanks for
this great software. I was planning to go with ReplayTV, but as fas as I
can tell, this has all the same functionality plus more (2 channel encoding
box is a big one).
T.I.A for any suggestions / tips.
Gary
I'm getting ready to build a box just for MythTV and despite reading the
docs and browsing the forums, I've got some relatively newbie questions
still and would also appreciate any feedback on the proposed setup I'm
planning. I'll probably start with a 1 encoding machine as both front and
back end, but I'd like to get to a 2 channel encoding backend w/ multiple
front ends. I might though want to do 2 channel encoding and 1 channel
decoding that can get multiplexed through my video distro system over coax
(e.g. on channel 3).
Hardware
=========
I just ordered a Dell 4550 w/ the following specs for $480 (after rebates,
discount, and fatwallet.com):
- Intel P4 - 2.66 ghz (533mhz FSB)
- 256 DDR2700 Ram (Do I need to upgrade to 512 for dual channel encoding?
- 30 gig drive (I might swap this out for a 10 gig drive for the OS and
then much bigger drives for video storage once I verify recording quality)
- DVD+R/RW drive - Can MythTV / Linux burn DVD's? If not, I might swap
this out for a dvd player and then put the DVD+R/RW drive into a win2k box
for exporting / archiving shows (smallville, enterprise, etc...). It would
also be cool to have the DVD drive so I can watch DVD's (progressive?)
directly through the machine or maybe even rip the movies on to it so I'd
have an immediately accessible movie archive (especially for all of my
kids' videos).
- ATI TV Wonder (PCI) - I currently have this card in another machine using
Snapstream. It seems like this should work for now so I will put it into
the new machine when I get it. If the WinTV PVR-250 works better, I will
probably get this for sure for the 2nd encoding channel. If it does work
better (mostly concerned w/ recording quality, not drive space) then I'd
love to see the ivtv drivers support 2 of these in 1 myth-tv box. If the
ATI card works well though, I might try to use two of these and assume that
2.66 ghz should be enough to handle encoding 2 channels.
- Sound card - integrated sound - I'm not sure if this will do, but if not,
what would people suggest? I've heard that SB Live works ok and I've got
this in a couple other machines, so I might start cannibalizing then. For
2 channel encoding, do I need 2 separate sound devices?
- TV out - The machine will come with an nVidia 64mb geforce 4 card w/ TV
out. I also have a gforce2 card w/ TV out - would that work better? My 65
Mitsubishi also supports a 640x480 vga input - is that also an option? I'm
basically looking for best possible quality w/ 'normal' components.
Software
========
Linux - I haven't built a Linux box in like 10 years, so I'm totally out of
touch w/ the latest distros. I was assuming I'd go with RH9 (probably
easiest to install and I'd figure on getting the latest version). But
since most people seem to use RH8, should I go with that? I can go w/
others (Debian, Gentoo) if people say it's less problematic, but I'd rather
not spend a lot of time pulling out hair over setting this up.
MythTV - Should I get the .8 version or build from CVS?
Another general question is whether the web interface allows me to control
what the myth backend(s) has scheduled for recording. Would this be one
website where I can pick shows to record for both encoding channels? Or do
I need to go to a different website / URL for each recording channel or for
each myth back-end?
I'm expecting this box to come in a couple days, so until then I'll keep
reading the forums to get ideas of what's best to set up. But thanks for
this great software. I was planning to go with ReplayTV, but as fas as I
can tell, this has all the same functionality plus more (2 channel encoding
box is a big one).
T.I.A for any suggestions / tips.
Gary