Mailing List Archive

At 03:28 PM 6/8/2003 -0500, Cosimo Leipold wrote:
> I would love to build myself a MythTV box. The problem is I can't
>seem to find any list of working configurations and setups. I look at one
>post that suggests the Hauppauge PVR 250, the next post says it won't
>work, etc.. Same deal for video out solutions... "Some old nvidia cards
>are supported" is a pretty sub par bit of documentation...

If you look at the list archives for the past few days, you will see some
references to a database of configurations that someone maintains ... not
specific to MythTV, but oriented toward video-capture-and-playback systems.

Because I do not think that database is quite complete for your purposes,
here is the configuration I am running:

Hardware:

Celeron 1.7 GHz on Gigabit Titan P4 mobo
(onboard sound disabled in BIOS)
256 MB PC133 RAM
system on old 8 GB hard disk as hda
vidcap to 180 GB WD hard disk as hdc
nVidia GeForce4 MX440-SE AGP Video Card with TV-out
AverTV "Desktop TV PVR" card (the newer one, that does NOT have
the SONY daughterboard - this is a slipstreamed change so I don't know how
better to identify it)
Soundblaster16 PCI sound card
Linksys NIC (tulip chip)
some old keyboard, mouse, and speakers
black desktop case with 300W, P4-ready P/S
display to a small (13") and old TV-style monitor

Software:
Debian-Sid
prepackaged Myth .deb packages
alsa sound modules
nVidia's proprietary X driver
kernel 2.4.19, compiled locallt from Debian kernel-source package

MythTV set at defaults except:
capturing NTSC, us-cable frequency set
using MPEG4 encoding
varying capture resolution (see below)

Problems with this configuration:

1. Watch out for the AverTV card. The one I described works fine, but older
ones (with the daughterboard) failed (or caused the bttv driver to fail)
about once every 2 days.

2. This system cannot quite keep up with "live" TV at the default 480x480
resolution. At 320x240 it works very nicely and seems to work fine.

When run as a Myth host, I have only used these systems locally, that is,
watching "live" or pre-recorded TV on the same system that does or did the
capture. Using different capture software (vcr/avifile), I've captured DivX
video that I've been able to access remotely (via Samba), edit on a Win2K
host using VirtualDub, and watch on the same Win2K host.

I have a second system that matches this one except for the hard disks
(which are a bit smaller) and the video card, a nVidia GeForce2 GTS 64 MB
DDR 4x AGP Video w/TV-out. This one also works well, though I like the
video card a tiny bit less (not for Myth reasons but because it does not
activate TV-out on its own to show the boot/init sequence).

Is this specific enough for you? Is there additional information you would
like to see (if yes, be specific)? I don't have prices at hand, but I think
this system could be built today for about $400. (I didn't pay for the
case, though, so that estimate might involve substituting a cheaper case.)

> I would love to know what setups people have actually got
>working right, ideally the whole thing - this is my case, my mobo, my ram,
>my video, I'm using/not using onboard audio, etc. That way I can replicate
>that machine to a T, and rest assured that with the proper amount of
>fiddling I can get it to work. I've seen numerous posts of "Yea I had to
>ditch the card, I couldn't get it to work". I'd like to avoid that.
>
> If anyone here has built a relatively low cost mythtv and would be
>willing to share what they've put in it I'd greatly appreciate it. If you
>could be specific on the pvr card and the video card that would be great.
>
> Ideally, I'd like to eventually build whatever that person put
>together and document everything I did start to finish. From the install
>of the os, to compiling, configuring, testing - a howto that could take
>someone who wants to build a mythtv from scratch from "I've got a blank
>disk" to "I'm watching DIVX flicks off the network". If a document like
>this exists, please point me to it. I've looked but haven't found
>anything very detailed. Just wide steps (which is fine, until you run into
>a snag).

At 03:28 PM 6/8/2003 -0500, Cosimo Leipold wrote:
> I would love to build myself a MythTV box. The problem is I can't
>seem to find any list of working configurations and setups. I look at one
>post that suggests the Hauppauge PVR 250, the next post says it won't
>work, etc.. Same deal for video out solutions... "Some old nvidia cards
>are supported" is a pretty sub par bit of documentation...

There's a good hardware database on this site.

http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/

There isn't a good explanation of what the "Rating" column is or where that
number comes from on that site. From comments elsewhere on this mailing list
I learned that larger ratings are better than small ones.

Have Fun!

Brian B.

Right now (although im changing the case)
case: midsize tower
MB: ASUS 550Mhz Bus
CPU: Pentium IV 1.8 Ghz
Memory: 786 Megs
HD: 80 Gig Western Digital (soon to be 200 gig)
Video: ATI 9500 PRO 128 MB (no TV OUT)
Tuner: Huappauge PVR-250 (with grey remote)
Audio: using onboard audio
CDRW: Dont know. bought it cheap at a computer show
No Floppy

OS: Redhat 9.0 / Windows XP
Kernel: 2.4.20-19

Does that help?

--


Cosimo Leipold said:
> I would love to build myself a MythTV box. The problem is I can't
> seem to find any list of working configurations and setups. I look at one
> post that suggests the Hauppauge PVR 250, the next post says it won't
> work, etc.. Same deal for video out solutions... "Some old nvidia cards
> are supported" is a pretty sub par bit of documentation...
>
> I would love to know what setups people have actually got
> working right, ideally the whole thing - this is my case, my mobo, my ram,
> my video, I'm using/not using onboard audio, etc. That way I can replicate
> that machine to a T, and rest assured that with the proper amount of
> fiddling I can get it to work. I've seen numerous posts of "Yea I had to
> ditch the card, I couldn't get it to work". I'd like to avoid that.
>
> If anyone here has built a relatively low cost mythtv and would be
> willing to share what they've put in it I'd greatly appreciate it. If you
> could be specific on the pvr card and the video card that would be great.
>
> Ideally, I'd like to eventually build whatever that person put
> together and document everything I did start to finish. From the install
> of the os, to compiling, configuring, testing - a howto that could take
> someone who wants to build a mythtv from scratch from "I've got a blank
> disk" to "I'm watching DIVX flicks off the network". If a document like
> this exists, please point me to it. I've looked but haven't found
> anything very detailed. Just wide steps (which is fine, until you run into
> a snag).
>
>
> thanks
> cos
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

On Sunday, Jun 8, Cosimo Leipold wrote:

>> I would love to build myself a MythTV box. The problem is I can't
>> seem to find any list of working configurations and setups. I look at
>> one
>> post that suggests the Hauppauge PVR 250, the next post says it won't
>> work, etc.. Same deal for video out solutions... "Some old nvidia
>> cards
>> are supported" is a pretty sub par bit of documentation...

Read this:

http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=rh9pvr250

I'm using a PVR-250 just fine right now, as are many other people. My
specific hardware, and a step-by-step guide can be found at the above
link.
--
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE
<jcw@wilsonet.com>
"A wise man once said nothing at all."