i'm about to build my first myth system, want a combined front/backend with 2 dvb recievers.

if dvb cards are just recieving an mpg2 stream and delivering it to the computer does that mean that something like the 1.3ghz via mini-itx board would be able to cope with recording 2 streams and playing a 3rd? anyone got any experiences of this kind of setup?

another question: would storing the video files on another computer (over gigabit ethernet) be likely to cause problems?

sorry if these are answered elsewhere, i've spent a while looking and not found anything definite.. dont want to blow a load of money on something that doesnt work or the gf will kill me!

thanks..

That CPU would probably be OK for standard definition recordings but certainly wont cut it if you want to play high def content (you need a 3G P4 at a minimum). Using XVMC to offload the processing to the videocard still has too many problems to make it useful, but this is being worked on at the moment.

I have seen some people talk about problems (lockups) with via chipsets that are saturated with DMA requests so you may want to investigate that a bit further.

cool, thank you.

i saw the via chipset sticky and wondered if that applied to their epia/c3 boards as well.. definitely wont be handling HD any time soon - i'm in the uk..

hmm, aren't some dvb programs high def (or at least medium def)?

-brendan

i dont know for sure but i read something in the guardian that said uk freeview is standard definition and sky will start introducing hd as pay per view for big events like football in the next year or so.

I'm using three DVB-T cards on an Athlon 1100 and can record 3 channels while watching 1, with only the slightest occasional hickup (slowdown).

I'm looking to replace with an Athlon 2400

Carl