I'm thinking about adding an Avermedia A180 or an HD5000 to my current setup. I wanted to ask for some feed back to see if my rig will even be able to record/playback HD contact while still be able to playback and record SD contact.

I currently have a single PVR-250, 768 megs of RAM, an Athalon 1.2Ghz CPU and a FX5200 for playback. I'm using DVI to output to my HDTV. I'm currently running R5A30.1.

I'd like to be able to keep my PVR-250 connected to regular analog cable and then add an HD tuner to record just OTA HD content.

Does anything stand out that might make it diffcult to record and playback HD contact as well as SD? Comments?

the 1.2 is not going to cut it for playing back hdtv without xvmc.

and you'll be on the on the very low end with xvmc.

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Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Thats what I was affraid of. Would more ram help?

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Backend:
AMD 1.2GHz
512MB Ram
20GB OS
160GB + 250GB + 250BG (LVM)
PVR-250 + PVR-150


Frontend:
Shuttle XPC
AMD 2200+
512MB RAM
300GB External USB for downloaded content
gForce 5200FX
Connected via DVI to a 56" HDTV

Well I had an idea. I also have a shuttle laying around that I'm about to bring back to life. It's an AMD 2200+ with 512 megs of ram. I can put that fx5200 in that and make it a front end.

Think that might do the playback?

I can play back HD recordings with an AMD 2400+ Shuttle system and nVidia video card (FX5200 I think), but only with XvMC turned on.

oh really? I just looked again and it's an amd 2200+. So does it stutter or anything? And are you able to play 1080i?

My system is a Shuttle SN51G2B, again, with an Athlon 2400+ in it. I play back both 720p (local ABC and Fox affiliates) and 1080i (local NBC affiliate) material on a 720p LCD TV. 720p plays back fine; 1080i material plays back with occasional glitches probably due to the deinterlacing, but no stuttering.

Certainly nothing like I get when I have XvMC turned off, which is play-stop-play-stop-play-stop...

How much ram and are you using KnoppMyth? If so, which version?

And does anyone have any suggestions how I can possibly test to see if i'm able to do playback before I go out and buy a tuner card?

Go to the PCHDTV website. They have a test video you can download.

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ASUS A7N266 Micro-ATX Motherboard
Athlon 2200 processor
512K Kingston PC2100 Memory
MicroAtx Case
2 PVR250's w/remote
eVGA e-GeForce mx4000 (64 Ram with Tv/Out (Svideo))
Lite-on DVD cd-rw combo
120 GB Western Digital

thanks!

I downloaded that file and it played. Kind of a slow moving piece with a guy in a train.... seemed really slow, but I guess that's the file its self.

I was able to play it in 1080i fullscreen

could someone be so kind as to download that file and see if you think it's just a slow moving piece? There's no audio by the time its showing the two boys looking out the window


Here's the link

http://www.pchdtv.com/downloads/tst.tar

I put it in my video folder as tst.mpg and let the video manager find it and play it

Remember that files played back with video manager use mplayer for playback, whereas files recorded with MythTV and played through "recorded programs" play back with MythTV's internal playback program. I think mplayer that comes with KnoppMyth has XvMC support enabled or something. So it's not a good test for whether MythTV can play back a HD recording.

BTW, my Shuttle has 512MB of RAM.

Hmmm.... interesting. Is there a way I can manualy launch the myth video player to test the file?

Type82 - I have almost the exact question and system. I have an Athlon 2500+ Barton with 512MB ram. I also have a PVR250 that is hooked to cable. I want to add a HD5000 for OTA only.

Can anyone explain how that works - can you use your remote from the PVR-250 to control the HD5000. Didn't 0.19 add a different player for playing back Myth files - not sure if that makes a difference in playback. I just want to make sure my 2500+ can at least handle the playback. Only other thing to consider is drive space.

The remote that you're using (silver hauppauge?) is being used to control the myth box. Myth its self will change the channels.

Read some of the hdtv docs, it does a good job of explaining how all of that works. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that basically you'll add a new tuner with mythtv-setup and use zap2it to make a new channel lineup with just the local HD channels you can pickup OTA.

From what I've been reading, you will need to have an nvidia card with IDCT support. My 5200FX does. That explains why mplayer had no problem playing that hdtv clip I downloaded, since it uses XvMC. It played real smooth, wasn't jerky or anything, but I'm still wondering if it's suppose to play back so slowly. Anyone else try the clip?


An my next (related) question is... how do you enable XvMC for the myth player?