> > I never thought about the sounds from the cable box (I'm glad I asked > questions :), but could I not use the coax out from the top set into > the MythTV box and then composite from the MythTV box to the TV?
Yes, no problem. The coax coming in carries audio and video, so there's no need to patch the audio into the soundcard's in. If it's the PVR 350 (at least as I understand it), the coax-out will also carry both audio and video to your TV. If you use the video card's out for your picture in whatever format, you'll need to get the audio out of your soundcard out to an amplifier -- the aux ins of any ol' stereo will do, and lots of TVs have the composite and stereo RCAs built in for plugging in camcorders. Using these is no problem -- (in fact it's probably the easiest and cheapest way to do it, using an S-vid to RCA converter and an 1/8" stereo mini to stereo RCA cable you can get at Radio Shack for $6 or so. I'd recommend doing it this way, because you seem to have more flexibility than with the 350s coax-out. Reportedly the 350 gives you a marginally better picture, but the hassles with X and the difficulties with MPEG-4 make it somewhat limited. Of course, with a 350, you would be able tio use either that card's out or the vid card's out . . . > <sinp> > > Yes, but you'll probably want the IR blaster as close to the decoder > > box as you can get it, and even then there will be some delay when > > changing channels in live TV. But Myth is not built for channel > > surfing, and the ring buffer only contains the channel currently > > selected -- you can't switch channels and then rewind the new channel > > to a point before you switched. > > Let me get this straight, the IR Blaster is part of the capture card > that will change the channel on my top set? Also, you mentioned that > there will be some delay when changing channel, how long of a delay > should I be expecting? > There are two components here, and two separtate things are going on. Assuming we're talking about the Hauppage remote, the IR reciever for the remote control plugs into the capture card. This controls the operation of MythTV. But MythTV needs to tell the hardware -- the capture card and, if necessary, the decoder box, which channel to tune to. With analog cable, MythTV simply tunes the proper frequency on the decoder card. With a cable box, it needs to send remote control signals to the box. This is the second module, IR blaster, an IR transmitter that mimics your cable companies remote. There is always going to be a delay when switching channels because you are not really watching live TV. When you select a channel, MythTV begins recording to a ring buffer and then immediately begins a playback of that recording. There are a lot of steps that have to be done between you pressing the channel change button and the picture coming out of the machine. On my P3 700 box, it takes two or three seconds to switch channels. On a more powerful machine it will certainly be quicker, but it will never be as fast as controlling the TV or the cable box directly. <snip> > No I think I understand it all now, with the exception of the > questions above... Also, I read the required specs somewhere and I > can't seem to find them any more, I'm sure I'm over looking them... > But a PIII ~500Mhz, too slow for a master MythTV box? I'd say it's on the very trailing edge. Live TV will probably be too stuttery for comfort, though you should be able to record and playback. With a hardware card, the CPU isn't very taxed while recording, but playing a decent resolution video signal takes a lot of juice. Operations like com-flagging and transcoding will take a lot longer on this kind of machine as well -- I generally do transcoding on my P4 1.8 desktop rather than the Myth box. You can definitely get a system running on this that proves the concept, teaches you how it works, and really focuses you on what you need for the next one > Also, what is > the lowest end video card that I could use before I start seeing > degradation? I first ran a gf2 mmx with S-vid out. You can't find them in shops anymore, but I've seen them for around $10 on ebay. I've seen gf4s in shops for $30-$40. > > Thanks!, > Andrew > _______________________________________________ > mythtv-users mailing list > mythtv-users@mythtv.org > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users > _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
