I have never used nor affiliated with them but someone pointed me their
way when I was thinking about a mythtv box and was worried about months
of hardware research/cross checking/pricing etc
There is a open platform called Dragon
http://mythic.tv/index.php/dragon-v2-0.html
and a company in Aus that sell them
http://www.better-access.com/index.php?dest=order
Grant
John Clarke wrote:
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
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