From owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 1 19:29:58 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 BDD8016A4CF for ; Tue, 1 Feb 2005 19:29:58 +0000 (GMT) Received: from titan.whee.org (titan.whee.org [207.195.206.249]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EAFBC43D53 for ; Tue, 1 Feb 2005 19:29:57 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from adam@whee.org) Received: from titan.whee.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by titan.whee.org (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id j11JGx3f022310 for ; Tue, 1 Feb 2005 13:16:59 -0600 (CST) Received: from localhost (adam@localhost) by titan.whee.org (8.12.9/8.12.9/Submit) with ESMTP id j11JGxgY022307 for ; Tue, 1 Feb 2005 13:16:59 -0600 (CST) X-Authentication-Warning: titan.whee.org: adam owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 13:16:59 -0600 (CST) From: Adam Maloney X-X-Sender: adam@titan To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Message-ID: X-GPG-FINGERPRINT: E39B 8D34 5F0A EA2E 4CCA 5B1D 8D55 7C25 0061 10AF X-GPG-PUBLIC_KEY: http://www.whee.org/~adam/adam-whee-org-pubkey.asc MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: 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: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 19:29:58 -0000 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!