Hardware recommendations for MythTV/FreeBSD

[Steven S.]

I use a pvr-250 in a "remote" pvr solution. The pvr box is headless and 
stores recorded shows to my large array. I tried using Myth but it just 
would not work well for my needs, plus parts wouldnt compile. I was using 
a older build and did not try the latest. Instead I switched to Freevo. 
The web based interface is perfect for scheduling shows and I can do 
playback on my workstation or xbmc.

The biggest downside is I cannot get ffmpeg, mencoder nor transcode to 
work well enough with the pvr-250 so I wrote a dirty little shell script 
to cat the cxm device to the filesystem. It works but I wish I could alter 
the bit rate the pvr card outputs at, 10mbit resolution creates 4gig/hr 
files at full NTSC size.

For the most part the pvr-250 is plug and play. Most of the tuners are 
supported so you should be okay. I've not fiddled with source selection, 
from what I gather from reply's here it seems to be hit or miss, oddly. I 
would guess it would work. Unless it doesnt.







On Tue, 1 Feb 2005, Adam Maloney wrote:

> I'm considering building a PVR setup at home, and I have some questions...
>
> Ultimately, I'm after TiVo-like functionality...the ability to 
> watch/pause/30-second-skip live TV, and record shows.  I am leaning towards 
> using MythTV (but have some questions about that too)
>
> I apologize if not all of these are 100% freebsd-related, but I'm hoping 
> others on this list have similar setups.
>
> First, I'm looking for recommendations on TV capture and TV-out cards. I'm 
> strongly leaning towards the Hauppage PVR-250, since it appears to be 
> well-supported, and I may be doing capturing on a lower-end machine that 
> couldn't handle software encoding.  And I will probably run two cards so I 
> can watch/record simultaneously.
>
> If I go with the Hauppage - where to buy?  And do I need to pay attention to 
> a particular hardware revision or if I buy the "PVR-250" will it just work?
>
> How about a source for remotes that will work with FreeBSD and MythTV?
>
> I have a K6-2/350MHz machine laying around.  Is it fast enough, with the 
> right TV-out card, to be used as the feed for the TV?  That is, reading and 
> decoding the recorded video from the Hauppage?  How about with MythTV's 
> picture-in-picture feature (that is, decoding 2 streams, right?) If not, my 
> workstation is an AMD Athlon XP 1700+, but I'd have to run coax upstairs...or 
> buy another machine.
>
> Does MythTV work well under FreeBSD?  I like what I'm reading about it, but 
> the documentation is very linux-centric.  I haven't found a lot of 
> information on running it under BSD.  There was a similar project I was 
> reading about the other day, but I forgot the name...is Myth the best option?
>
> I have what I consider 3 "sources" that feed picture into my TV - an Apex DVD 
> player, analog cable, and a Gamecube.  The TV has an RF input for 
> cable/antenna, and AV (RCA) inputs.  With my PVR box in the picture, how 
> would this all fit together?  Can I tell the Apex to output on channel 3, and 
> the TV-out card to output on channel 4, and then multiplex both signals onto 
> the RF-in on the TV?  (And then the GC on A/V)
>
> Currently the cable plugs into RF-in (cable-ready TV, no cable box), and I 
> (well, the wifey) manually switch the AV jacks between the GC and the DVD 
> player.
>
> If I connect the Apex into one of the PVR cards, can I feed through that way? 
> I'm not interested in recording DVD's...I just want this to work. Will the 
> tuner card not work because of Macrovision?  (This isn't one of the "good" 
> Apexes (Apexi?))
>
> I appreciate any pointers!
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