From owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 2 23:20:21 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C30AA16A4CE for ; Wed, 2 Feb 2005 23:20:21 +0000 (GMT) Received: from relay01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net (relay01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net [66.133.131.34]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3BD7743D49 for ; Wed, 2 Feb 2005 23:20:21 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from drew@mykitchentable.net) Received: from filter01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net (filter01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net [66.133.131.176]) by relay01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6815F10397; Wed, 2 Feb 2005 23:20:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from relay01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net ([66.133.131.34]) [66.133.131.176]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 00709-02-80; Wed, 2 Feb 2005 23:20:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from blacklamb.mykitchentable.net (67-137-237-141.dsl2.elk.ca.frontiernet.net [67.137.237.141]) by relay01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 882AE103E2; Wed, 2 Feb 2005 23:20:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.1.3] (bigdaddy.mykitchentable.net [192.168.1.3]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by blacklamb.mykitchentable.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id C03913BF35E; Wed, 2 Feb 2005 15:20:14 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <4201602D.9060006@mykitchentable.net> Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 15:20:13 -0800 From: Drew Tomlinson User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Michael Johnson References: <20050201164641.E64418@atlantis.403forbidden.net> <42011B91.2070101@mykitchentable.net> <2B6929F3-686D-4443-A0E9-812399BB6049@ahze.net> In-Reply-To: <2B6929F3-686D-4443-A0E9-812399BB6049@ahze.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20040701 (2.0) at filter01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net cc: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Hardware recommendations for MythTV/FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Multimedia discussions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 23:20:22 -0000 On 2/2/2005 10:34 AM Michael Johnson wrote: > On Feb 2, 2005, at 1:27 PM, Drew Tomlinson wrote: > > > >> On 2/2/2005 5:59 AM Adam Maloney wrote: >> >> >>> On Tue, 1 Feb 2005, Steven S. wrote: >>> >>> >>>> 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. >>> >>> That's kind of what I suspected...everyone is pretty sure it will >>> work fine, but no one wants to out-right guaranty it :) But unless I >>> hear any real negative feedback from others, I think my mind is made >>> up on the PVR-250. >> >> I've been watching this thread as I am interested in building such a >> setup also. Can anyone comment on whether the 350 offers any benefit >> over the 250? As I understand it, the 350 also includes a hardware >> decoder for MPEG-2 playback. Is this any significant advantage? My >> PVR will be based on an 1gz AMD Athlon. > > That is the only advantage the 350 has over the 250, hardware MPEG-2 > decoder. > It doesn't take much CPU power to decode MPEG-2. > >> Also, I have a wide screen HDTV. Does anyone know of any cards that >> support the wide screen HDTV resolutions? Although I've found tuner >> cards (no hardware encoder) that support this, I haven't come across >> any PVR cards. > > There is only a handful that mytvtv supports, and there is no freebsd > driver (yet) > http://mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-3.html#ss3.1 , scroll down the the > HDTV part. > If you get one of those cards you will need to get it before July 1st > if you are in the USA. > After July 1 they will be illegal to sell until they respect the HD > broadcast flag. Thanks for the reply. I reviewed the pcHDTV 3000 and the Air2PC cards. Any recommendations of one over the other? Seems like these would be good additions for my system for capturing or time-shifting HDTV over the air broadcasts. However a PVR-250 is still needed for the day to day work of capturing or time shifting my satellite reception. Does this make sense and can I run both cards? If so, I'll build with the PVR-250 first and then add the HDTV later (while keeping my eye on the July 1 deadline). :) Thanks, Drew -- Visit The Alchemist's Warehouse Magic Tricks, DVDs, Videos, Books, & More! http://www.alchemistswarehouse.com