I have just set up MythTV for the very first time and the install went very smoothly and everything seems to work, however I cannot watch live TV. When I attempt to watch live TV I get an display of about 1-3 frames per second(also happens when playing back video). Also I get no audio, but I haven't looked in to that, it may be an unsupported sound card (old SB128 clone I think)

My question is Should I go with a faster processor (currently P3-533EB, in older Tyan board, supports 1ghz) Or would a WinTV PVR 250 or 350 be a better investment and yeild better results. Or just forget this computer and blow the rent check on a new PC

Current Full Specs of Myth rig:
P-IIIEB 533Mhz (Slot1)
Tyan Trinity 400 (supports Slot1/Socket370 up to 1Ghz (FC Celeron&P3)
512mb PC133
40gig 7200 Seagate
8Mb ATI RAGE III-C AGP Video card
WinTV GO (LOW END!)
SB128 (or possibly a clone)
DEC 10/100NIC (tulip)
Samsung 12x DVD-ROM
Low profile Gateway2000 ATX Desktop Case

If there is some aspect of this system that is not compatable, that could be causing it to run slow, I can easily replace any peice, I have easy access to replacements for all the hardware except the CPU & a better tuner, which I would need to order, if that is what it boils down to, which one would help performance the most.

(I know I ramble a lot, I like to hear my self type )

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Please be nice, I am new to Myth. I will try to not act like a total dumbass newbie

many people have had problems with the sb128's I would replace that if you have something to replace it with. The processor is slow, but it shouldn't be that slow. you should be able to get close to full speed with just recordings. I would make sure dma is enabled for the harddrive. If you don't know how to do this search the fourms or check the wiki. also you may want to try swapping back and forth between mpeg4 and RTJPEG encoding. your machine will probably not have enough hoursepower for livetv regardless, and possibly not even recording, but I would think it should be able to handle better than 3 fps.

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

Xsecrets

Your machine is definitely underpowered for this job. http://www.mysettopbox.tv/basics.html

Slinging video streams around, encoding and decoding them, etc. requires a certain amount of bandwidth in CPU, memory, system buses, disk I/O, and the video card, that you just don't have here. With a PVR250 capturing at 480x480 and "default" bit rates you get *compressed* disk files of 2.2 GB/hour, or 0.650 MB/sec, going just one way to disk. Double that for watching live TV. Now add MPEG2 decoding, deinterlacing, shuffling that to the video card, and basic OS overhead. Add the fact that you bought a card whch requires the CPU to do all the work of both encodeing and decoding the video stream, thus requiring even more CPU/memory bandwidth. As a old Georgia boy I knew used to say, "that dog won't hunt".

Over in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 forums you can find specs for sub-$500 systems that will do this job handily. You might be able to make the current system wiork in a very low spec way using a PVR-350 but the words "waste of time" spring to mind.

I have the same mb but with onboard sound, and before using the celeron 733 I was using a PIII-600E (not sure if its a good move). I am able to watch live tv by setting the resolution to 352x240 rtjpeg, mp3 audio 32000, lowest quality. But dont let the machine do anything else at the same time.

As for recording, I can go to 352x480 rtjpeg, audio 32000, quality 8.
Again, close everything you dont need, including mythfrontend.

will tell you if dma is enabled.

But, your 8 meg old school video card is the first thing I would upgrade.

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Tyan Trinity 1854S - VIA Apollo Pro 133
P3-1000, 768mb PC-133, GF2 MX400 64mb
Avermedia M179, ATI TV Wonder w/remote, Maxtor 160 gig, DVD burner.R5E50.
Second FE - Thinkpad T22, 900, 384mb. Ubuntu Dapper, Mythtv FE 0.20

I think ultimately I am just going to go and buy a new mobo/cpu and eventually a PVR card (250 or 350) I was looking and a fairly decent mobo and a XP2000 CPU that are not all that much money (less than what I would pay for a PVR card and a new 1ghz cpu for this board).

I was looking and I can get an XP2000 and an NForce board(Asus A7N8X-X) with onboard audio, video, and LAN for less than $130. I am wondering what kind of luck people have had with the nforce graphics and sound? Is there any post-install config that is nessicary or does knoppmyth pick up on them right away? I am more woried about the video, if need be I have TONS of sound cards and NIC cards. (speaking of NIC cards, I have a case of 50 Intel Pro100S cards ).

If this does not sound like a good setup doesn anyone have any recomendations for any mobos with onboard sound/video (I want to keep this as cheap as possible (under $150), I have limited amounts of time/money to toss in to this before I just give up and go back to showshifter which despite its claims it NEEDS an 800mhz cpu ran fine on this 533, recording and simultanious playback (encoding divx), I do like the layout of Myth a TON better tho, but I will go with functionality over feature set)

Also I would like to thank you all who responded so quickly (faster than showshifter customer support, took them a week to email me my lost reg code)

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Please be nice, I am new to Myth. I will try to not act like a total dumbass newbie

Search for the reference platform thread... (Never mind I found it for you) http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1990 Our fearless leader Cesman talks about an nforce2 based mother board, the Chaintech 7NIF2 as being as close as anything. You can find it here: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-152-020&depa=1