Hardware that works WELL with Mythtv

[scottyhutch]

Originally Posted by Psychotic_Carp

I have looked at the price for the 350 and the 150, the 150 cost around $80-100 and the 350 costs abot $150. But if I want to use the 150 or 250 I need to buy a video card for another $40-50, the question I have is this

Which is better to go with?

$100 (150) + $40 (Video Card) = $140 (actually about 130-150)

$150 (350) = $150

If you add in shipping there doesnt seem to be much diff.

If you look at the system requirements for the 350, it requires a VGA card with Direct Draw Support. You can probably get away with an on-board video solution. What is your output? SD or HD TV?

[Psychotic_Carp]

I havent built one yet but I was planning on SD. Would a MB with a built in VC work? or deos it need the svhs or DVI (for HD) for the actual output? I was plannig on using the aopen XC cube

[jakep_82]

In response to scottyhutch;

That sounds about right. I've heard others say the picture is slightly better with the 250. I don't have one so I can't compare. What I can say is on my 46" DLP HDTV the PVR-150 produces a picture as good or better than the TV's built in tuner. I've had problems with minor interference on a couple channels, but that's due to my 3 way splitter and cheap cable. I expect a better splitter and RG6 cable to fix the problem (without the splitter, the picture is perfect).

In response to Psychotic_Carp;

First, the PVR-150 is not $100. If you get the card without a remote control it's only $59 with shipping on Newegg.

Second, the PVR-350 requires a video card also. You can't setup MythTV without a video card. Integrated video on a mobo will work, but you still need to have some type of video card.

Third, the PVR-350 is no longer being actively supported in MythTV. It's still useable, but it's a dying piece of hardware.

And finally, video output is entirely dependent on your TV. If your TV has an svideo input, then your video card should have an svideo output. If it has composite, that's what you need. So on and so forth.

[Psychotic_Carp]

Originally Posted by jakep_82

First, the PVR-150 is not $100. If you get the card without a remote control it's only $59 with shipping on Newegg.

I want the remote and its $91

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815116631

I havent found an oem with remote yet on newegg

[jmiahman]

Originally Posted by jakep_82

In response to scottyhutch;

That sounds about right. I've heard others say the picture is slightly better with the 250. I don't have one so I can't compare. What I can say is on my 46" DLP HDTV the PVR-150 produces a picture as good or better than the TV's built in tuner. I've had problems with minor interference on a couple channels, but that's due to my 3 way splitter and cheap cable. I expect a better splitter and RG6 cable to fix the problem (without the splitter, the picture is perfect).

In response to Psychotic_Carp;

First, the PVR-150 is not $100. If you get the card without a remote control it's only $59 with shipping on Newegg.

Second, the PVR-350 requires a video card also. You can't setup MythTV without a video card. Integrated video on a mobo will work, but you still need to have some type of video card.

Third, the PVR-350 is no longer being actively supported in MythTV. It's still useable, but it's a dying piece of hardware.

And finally, video output is entirely dependent on your TV. If your TV has an svideo input, then your video card should have an svideo output. If it has composite, that's what you need. So on and so forth.

You can actually setup MythTV without a Video Card. Through VNC or SSH, if you're just using it as your backend you may not want to take the time installing a video card when it's not needed. How do I know, I just did it! Also about the 350 mine shows up all statically, It's a shame as it was a very nice card at one time, but you can't beat the quality I get from my 150 compared to the 350 that's pretty sad.

[Chuckels550]

I have MythTV frontend/backend on one desktop PC. I went with the WinPVR 350 because my TV is analog and added a WinPVR 150 later on. I needed the graphics card to run a computer monitor when I was building and configuring the PC. Neither of the TV tuners can act as graphics cards and most mobos won't boot unless they detect a graphics card or have one embedded.

Setting up TV out is the last step for me before connecting to the TV. Up to that point in the build process, I use a monitor. The advantage is that the monitor displays earlier in the boot process, the monitor does not display with any overlap and the resolution is easier on the eyes.

The WinPVR 350 is old technology, but so is analog TV. However, for analog TV having a separate decoder means that you can watch MythTV TV recordings when the backend is recording something else. Having hardware encoder/decoder means less impact on the CPU. I added a second tuner card so that I could record programs end-to-end and start the recording a few minutes before and end the recording a few minutes after. After I get the TV-out working, the graphics card is superfluous since the video out to the TV is from the WinPVR 350

[R00st3r]

My setup is for HD recording

P4 2.4 GHZ (old machine I had)
1GB Memory
Mythdora latest version as of this date
HD Homerun (2 tuners)
Fusion 3 HDTV Gold-T (1 tuner)
Sound and video do not matter as it's a backend only.

At the moment I am using only the HD Homrun (I need a 3-way splitter), but I have tested the fusion card. I am getting recordings and was able to watch live TV from my laptop using the mythbuntu live cd as a test front end. I am looking to build a front end to play the live and recorded HD as inexpensive as possible. Any posts regarding front end systems for HD would be appreciated. (needs to do component as I do not have dvi or hdmi.)

[JEDIDIAH]

Originally Posted by Psychotic_Carp

I want the remote and its $91

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815116631

I havent found an oem with remote yet on newegg

For what you would have to shell out for a remote and an IR blaster, the PVR150 still effectively comes out being about $60 bux (or less). Keep in mind that the MCE remote/blaster combo is fully supported and that you won't need a separate IR blaster. With ubuntu, the configuration of both is pretty automagic.

[JEDIDIAH]

Originally Posted by huntermaclean

Anyone have any thoughts on this MOBO?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...USA-_-13127004

Good price, dual gigabit, 8 satas. no onboard video unfortunately :/

More SATA is always good.

I have 5 drives crammed into my current backend. It's very nice to have that option built in. I have one of those cheap Compaq refurbs as a desktop machine and it doesn't have any extra ports at all despite having plenty of empty space inside the case.

Lack of onboard video is not necessarily a problem. You aren't going to need a spectacular video card to begin with. A cheap nvidia 6100 or somesuch should do well and not cause any cooling/noise problems.

For the frontend, noise and heat will be constant issues. More and faster components in your frontend will make cooling it and keeping it quiet more difficult.

[danimaldaisy]

I have a working setup that I would like to share specs and howto's in setting up something similar....

I have ran mythtv via ubuntu for over a year and recently bought into the 1080p thing.

HD playback needs a decent CPU and I have been able to get things running on an e2180 2.0 GHz dual core....I want to under clock it and see just how low I can go with HD playback.

I suffered stuttering just like everything else until I figured out that in playback settings all I had to do was tweak the high quality settings (the one that distinctly shows 1920x1080)

I did not change anything except for "standard xmvc" for all 5 settings (under playback settings in the front end) and set everything to openGL....THEN I got smooth playback.....I have been able to rip 2 movies I own in blue ray into MP4 format (dropped them into the videos folder) with full 1920x1080 resolution and NO quality loss, and it plays back fine, but I need to use mplayer in order to do so (if the mods approve I would like to share THIS howto also as it is a WONDERFULL way to store movies on the mythbox without paying for a blue ray burner or media just the movies you have on the book shelf)

I am using onboard nvidia geforce 7100 with HDMI out.....audio over HDMI does not work so make sure your TV has RCA inputs tied to an HDMI port or DVI-in or you will be screwed on audio for the TV or have to use external speakers.....

The 7 series nvidia cards are PERFECT for playback and I am using an ASUS P5N-em

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131229

I have NOT tweaked anything....I am a firm believer in straight forward setups that require no tweaking of files or doing crazy stuff like rebuilding kernels whatsoever in which I refer to as HACKED!!!! My stuff works out of the box....

I am at work so will update as time allows.

I recommend the 7 series of nvidia cards....either onboard or add in.

Keep in mind that the 7 series is THE last series that supports xmvc.

XMVC is CRITICAL in getting HD playback working properly....this uses the opengl engine to enable high definition playback.....probably another reason why Microsoft dropped support for it in windows vista to push its HDCP crap.

Here are my components. I will list the component and then provide a link to newegg just for reference

Asus p5n-em motherboard (does not support dual channel memory but does not seem to matter)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131229

Intel Pentium e2180 with an easy safe over clock to 2.66ghz needs to be a little quicker to play MP$ 1080 blue ray rips in mplayer so I over clocked it....if you don’t like over clocking please get at least a e2200 or better yet an e5200....anything else will be gravy for Transcoding.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116052

HD-5500 tuner card

www.pchdtv.com/hd_5500.html

2 gig of ram (pick your brand) 1gig is the norm, but it taps into the swap file rather quickly

1TB green power western digital sata drive (choose at least a 320 gig)

Lite-on DVD burner/player

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106228

I have a pvr-250 by Hauppauge....I have no clue why my remote stopped working with my pvr-150 in the latest mythtv build built on mythbuntu 8.04.1...my only way to resolve was to swap in my 250 card (which NEVER EVER worked before with the remote and I cant explain WHY)

I ordered a zap stream remote and will post my results with this (supposed to be plug and play which is what I go for in a system build) I bought one because my remote on my Phillips TV....the volume control seems to affect the volume on mythtv at the same time and it's annoying...I hope this fixes it......

This is pretty much it....I feed the HDMI cable to a Phillips 42 inch 1080p LCD TV

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16889104114

Picture is AWESOME!

I DO have spare parts and want to build a backup mythtv box....I will be using an AMD dual core motherboard with an AGP 6200TC nvidia card and a gig of ram....I will base it around a 2.5ghz 45 watt CPU and see how far I get....I hope the card has enough umph...I know it will in 1080p playback, but not so sure about blue ray MP4 rips......

I LIKE the AMD setup better (this was a motherboard based on my previous set up....and can be DEAD SILENT compared to the E2180 setup on the ASUS board... (Plus it will be GREEN!) if this set up is a go I will use it as a backup system...I also might donate it to my buddy Vic who is a mythtv user (my mentor for everything computers and the one who got me into Linux in the first place) if his system wont cut it.

But I will document this also....

When I have time I will update this thread with screenshots of how I got it working.

PLEASE IF THIS THREAD GETS MOVED...."PM" ME THE NEW LOCATION AS THIS IS MY FIRST TIME POSTING!

Thanks!