Greetings Sluggers, I'm planning to build a MythTV box & have come up with what I think is suitable hardware to run it on, but I'm hoping that those of you with MythTV experience will point out anything I've got wrong.
The box will be both back and front end and will be in the lounge room in the cabinet with the amps, dvd player, etc, so it'll need to be fairly quiet, especially when idle, but I don't want to hear much when it's running either. It's going to be inside a cabinet so doesn't have to be stunningly beautiful, but I don't want it to look spectacularly ugly either. My budget is $2000. I want HDMI video to the TV (LCD, 1080p), either with audio or with a separate analogue audio cable. I also want digital audio (S/PDIF, preferrably coax) to the amp for better quality stereo or 5.1 audio. I'd also like the option of watching either live TV, recorded programs or ripped DVDs on any other PC on the LAN, at the same time as a different program is being watched on the TV and maybe another is being recorded. I believe that all of the hardware I'm thinking of is supported by Linux and MythTV, and although I don't think the necessary drivers are packaged in any distro yet (I'm thinking of using the latest Mythbuntu, only because everything else is running Ubuntu), I do know where to get them. This is my list of hardware: Asus P5Q SE2 motherboard Intel Core2Duo E7600 3.06GHz 1066MHz FSB 2GB PC6400 DDR2 RAM Asus GeForce GT220 1GB DDR3 video card 1.5GB Seagate 7200 RPM SATA HDD (ST31500341AS) Lite-On SATA 240x8 DVD-RW drive Silverstone LC10-E case 500W power supply Logitech diNovo Mini bluetooth keyboard and either of: Hauppage Nova-T-500 MCE dual tuner (PCI) Hauppage 2200 MCE dual tuner (PCI-E) I'll probably add a second tuner card once I've got it all up and running. We have occasionally wished for a third tuner in the past (not often, there's not that much worth watching on TV), so I may as well have four, just in case :-) Is this hardware powerful enough to do all that I want? Do I need more CPU grunt? More RAM? More hard drives? Bigger PSU? Anything else? The only other thing I can think of is remote control. I'd like to be able to control it from my Logitech Harmnony One remote, at least for the most common tasks, so obviously I'll need some sort of IR receiver. >From what I've read, the USB IrDA dongle I have is unlikely to work, so I'll need something else. All I've been able to find are receivers bundled with remote handsets, but I already have half a dozen or so of those gathering dust and don't need to add another one to the collection. Advice and suggestions will be gratefully received. I'd like to order the hardware next week, and I'd appreciate knowing that I've chosen badly *before* I part with the money :-) Thanks, John -- I recommend having an "accounts" option. The term is vague enough that almost everything falls under it, and of course the caller can then be put on hold for three weeks before being told by the person on the other end that they've got through to the wrong department. -- Peter Corlett -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html