Hi, there:

I am planning to set up a MythTV system, and I have also recently purchased the following barebones system from Tigerdirect.com:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... =S450-3200

I plan to use the KnoppMyth R4V4. Is this system going to be appropriate for that use?

Thanks

$19.99 after rebate! Nice! If you purchase a PVRx50/M179 you may have difficulties as the motherboard is a Via chipset.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

I'm thinking of going with the Hauppauge 250. Actually, here's the list I'm looking at:

- processor
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail - $87.00

- RAM

- hard drive
Samsung 160 GB 7200 RPM IDE - $88.00
- TV tuner card(s)
Hauppauge 250 - $127.00 - newegg.com
Hauppauge 350 - $185.00 - newegg.com

- PCI wireless card (802.11 b)
--

Avoid the "mobile" or "unlocked" CPUs in that motherboard. I've played with a couple of the KM400 chipset motherboards (thought they would be great for the frontend) and the motherboard seems to have no support for multiplier.

Means you throw an unlocked CPU in, and you get 6x166 or 6x200, which is a pretty radical underclock, especially for the mobile 2600 I had in there.

Also, I noticed stability wasn't the greatest at the 200mhz FSB, even though it "officially" supported it. I had to drop to a 166 to get it stable.

grats on a sweet deal on the barebones. You're off to a good start!

Questions: is the PVR 350 mentioned as possibly conflicting a specific model of that tuner card, or are all of the PVR 250s and 350s likely to conflict?

Also, I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with the term "mobile" or "unclocked" CPUs. Will this be clearly specified in the specs as look at CPU choices? What is a reasonable CPU to be buying? I don't want to overpower the machine for this application, either.


Thanks.

all pvr250/350 m179 and any other hardware encoding cards have problems with some via chipsets. notably the k?133 and ?266 chipsets. The newer ones are more likely to work, but some have still had problems even on the k?333 and k?400 chipsets.

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

Xsecrets

I'm sorry to have to clarify this so specifically, but are _all_ PVR 250 and 350 cards "m179"s?

If these cards won't be viable for me due to the type of motherboard I have, what is the next best alternative?

Also, what type of video card is needed?

My goal for this project is to get components that will get me the best reasonable performance without causing me to break the bank. To that end, is 256 MB of RAM enough, or should I really look at 512 MB? Etc.

Thanks for your support and help. I'm really looking forward to getting this project off the ground.

256 is enough. The problem is the Via chipsets, some have issue w/ DMA. I don't know if the KT400 suffers from this. You're best bet is to check the IvyTV archives and possibly post to the list.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

hauppage makes two cards pvr250 and pvr350 these cards and the avermedia M179 card all use the same chipset and the same linux driver. the IVTV driver. that driver has some problems with dma and some via chipsets. So no they are not all the same thing, but as far as the problem goes they are. make sense? LOL

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

Xsecrets

_Yes_. Thanks for that explanation; I am a fulltime Mac user and have pretty much never dealt with this architecture at all, ever.

What is a good substitute, in the event that I'm not able to use the PVR x50s?

Thanks a lot.

Update: I have the K_M_400 chipset on that board, not the KT400. I have seen no real confirmation of the problem with the KM400...