[Klug-general] MythTV hardware etc questions

[Karl Buckland]

George Prowse wrote:
> I was wondering what setup people have for their MythTV and other projects?
> 
> I'm thinking of doing my own setup and want to make it as easy as possible.
> 
> Also, will it work on any terrestrial/satellite broadcast?
> 

I'm using an old Shuttle SK41G with an Nvidia GeForce-FX 5200 and a 
Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T PCI.

The Hauppauge card records freeview digital TV, but there's a satellite 
equivalent: WinTV-NOVA-S-Plus. There's even a HD satellite equivalent 
too. If you want analogue then you'll need a different card again...

If you want to record both freeview digital, analogue and satellite then 
you'll need a seperate card for each one you want to record. The cheaper 
cards have only a single tuner, so they can only watch/record one 
channel at once. Although work is being done to allow you to 
watch/record multiple channels on the same multiplex, this still won't 
give you good multi-channel options. You can get cards with 2 or more 
tuners for a little bit extra, so look into that if you think you'll 
need to watch/record more than one channel at once.

MythTV is fairly clever though at creating a recording schedule and if 
there is a clash it will usually drop programmes from a particular day 
if the program is repeated during the same/next week and then it'll 
record the repeat.

The hardest part for me was getting all the parts working together. 
Ubuntu successfully detected my hardware and I followed the guide here:
http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php
The difficult parts were getting the PC to suspend when not in use and 
wake up for recordings successfully.

As a general rule, if you already have a computer than works fine with 
Ubuntu then if you select your hardware carefully and ensure it's 
supported (choose Nvidia graphics cards and preferably Haupauge TV 
cards) then you should be fine.

I would warn though, that you do need a good working knowledge of Linux 
to attempt this, because sometimes things do go wrong with combinations 
of hardware/software and getting it *all* working seamlessly together 
can be a little tricky.

-- 
Karl Buckland
www.digital-end.com