Brad, Thanks for all the great advice.
I talked to my next dorr neighbor who also has Cox digital service with HD and they gave him a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD which includes USB and two firewire ports. Hopefully this will be the same unit I get and the firewire will work for this. Then I can send the PVR-250 as well as the PCHDTC cards back or sell them. :-) On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 01:04:29 -0800, Brad Templeton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, Mar 27, 2005 at 11:59:23AM -0800, Richard Sears wrote: > > Hi Brad, > > > > Actually the Dual MP system I had laying around doing nothing, so I am > > building it to be a dedicated backend system. I have 4 300GB Raptor > > drives on an LSI SATA RAID controller on the system, and the plan is > > to have two or three front end systems all talking to the backend > > system. So the Dual system will be up in my office, so noise is not a > > factor. > > Then it's double overkill, because if all you want is a backend, and > in particular if you are going to use pchdtv and wintv-pvr cards, you > could probably run your backend on a 600mhz celeron. Maybe even > a fair bit less than that, for just recording. (Transcoding and > commercial elmination would be anoother story.) > > Recording from these cards takes effectively no CPU. You will use > some CPU running linux itself and a few other things, but that's about > it. > > For commercial skip/transcode, of course the more CPU the faster these > take place. But they are generally no rush unless you want to watch > shows with commercial skip right after they air. > > > > > I got the pvr-350 and the PCHDTC thinking that I needed them, but it > > sounds like I can use the firewire for everything that I need. > > This also takes no CPU. However, it's a brand new feature, and > in theory could go away for HD in the future. > > > > When using the firewire, I am assuming that I would need a separate > > 'digital' box and separate firewire input for each system that wanted > > to watch 'live' tv. Is that correct..? > > In theory you can put multiple items on the firewire bus, no? Firewire > runs 400 megabits. Digital TV runs no more than about 18 megabits per > HD channel. You won't run out on a single firewire controller. > > > On Friday I get the cable system installed. I already questioned them > > about the digital box, and they would not give me much information on > > it, who made it or anything. Do you think I should call and make sure > > they are brining the right unit out..? > > Check the many past threads on this mailing list about getting cable > companies to give you a firewire box the way they are required to. > > > > When using firewire, does audio come over it as well or do I need a > > separate card for audio. > > It's digital tv, which is always audio and video together as far as I know. > > > > I have an Audigy 2 sound card in my system now and my Gentoo install > > sees the card and the firewire port no problem, so I am very excited > > to give this a try. > > Your backend in theory doesn't need a sound card, or even a video card > unless the bios demands it for booting. Take your dual athlon out, > it is probably just sucking electricity, and put in something like the > cheapest Sempron or Celeron you can get, and you'll still be able to > get decent commercial scan on that. > -- ****************************************** Richard J. Sears Vice President American Internet Services ---------------------------------------------------- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.adnc.com ---------------------------------------------------- 858.576.4272 - Phone 858.427.2401 - Fax INOC-DBA - 6130 ---------------------------------------------------- I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things . . "Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like you do when nobody's watching." _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users