After some experimentation with Windows based PVRs dedicated Linux based PVR (ideally KnoppMyth) seems to be the way to go.

I was looking into geting Athlon 64 so I can minimize power consumption (C'n'Q) while still leaving HDTV a future possiblity. Unfortunatlly there are not to many reports on Athlon 64 in Tier 1..3 groups.

Anyone has experience with KnoppMyth on Athlon 64? I heave read about some minor Myth bugs related to 64bit execution. Do Knoppmyth binaries run on Athlon 64 straight "out of CD" or recompille and/or patches is necessary to get all options to work ?

Can anyone recommend appropriate mobo that is known to work? I have read that nForce chipset is the safest way to go. There is a lot of postings about success with nForce2 but most of Athlon 64 mobos have nForce4 is it a problem ?


TIA

I've been researching this myself. The idea is that stuff compiled for an i686 class processor should "just work" with an AMD64 processor. Most of the trouble reports I've in the MythTV mailing lists are related to compiling specifically for AMD64, which might be more of a GCC issue. On the motherboard front, with R5Axx and it's 2.6.9 kernel (moving to 2.6.11 at some point according to Cecil) you should have support for the newer Nforce 3 & 4 chipsets. I'd probably stick with the Nforce3 since it's been around a bit longer, and it's easier to find capture cards in plain old PCI.

I can't answer your question about a AMD64/mobo combo, but I'm currious: how many watts does a 64 bit AMD chip use/hour @ idle? How many does a athlon XP use?

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Depends on the Atlon XP, my +2500 Barton core chip is supposed to be something like 55, and I've seen a +2400 mobile listed at something like 35...

Thanks tjc

Regarding the nForce and PCI. I am not up to speed with the new PCI stuff. Few mobos that I have seen seemed to offer both PCI and PCI express.
I have existing 250 PCI capture card, that Id like to continue to use. Anything to watch for in terms of PCI compatibility?

graysky,
I have heard that new Athlons 64 can go as low as 10W when idle. Cool-and-Quiet feature underclocks and undervolts at the same time so the processor idles at 1Ghz with with low voltage (1.1?)
there is more info on the http://www.silentpcreview.com/.

PCI and the so called PCI Express are two completely different interfaces. If you look at a picture this becomes immediately obvious. Here's one showing 2 PCI-E 1x, 1 PCI-E 16x (Video Card), 1 AGP (Video Card), and 3 PCI. Talk about too many different standards! http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=13-138-249-01.jpg/13-138-249-02.jpg/13-138-249-03.jpg/13-138-249-04.jpg
Since I'm not aware of any capture cards for PCI-E yet you're probably better off sticking to plain old PCI, which is why I recommended an Nforce3 based board.

Very cool (literally). Thanks for the link. Now can you make their prices come down

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I have an Abit AV8 K8T, 3000+ AMD, HDTVPC, Nvidia 5500, ATI AIW remote, IEEE1394 CD-RW, that all work 'out of the box'.

HDTV playback was choppy until I installed the Nvidia drivers, but that fixed it. Also, CD-RW needed a symlink change (/dev/cdrom > /dev/scd0).

Recording takes ~8% of the CPU. HDTV playback takes about 75-80%.

any 32bit x86 code will run on amd64 natively, but it is not taking advantage of the extra registers or the 64bit size. And no knoppmyth does not have a native 64 bit version. This may be somthing to look at in the distant future, but for now it's just not important enough to spend much time on.

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

Xsecrets

Xsecrets is right about 64-bit support on KnoppMyth. But I would add that the R5 alpha DOES support hyperthreading out of the box. It makes the P4 perform extremely well at HDTV decoding. (Although I'm an Athlon fan, I have a P4 in my KnoppMyth box for this reason.)

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I just order the EPOX EP-9NDA3J nForce3 ULTRA and a AMD64 3500+. I'll let you know how the whole thing goes after I get my parts.

Interesting choices... I've been considering the EP-9NDA3+ (more SATA, SPDIF, ... and $26 more) with an Athlon 64 3200+ since there seems to be a huge jump in price between the 3200+ and the 3500+ ($175 -> $265!!!) and the 3200+ should have enough power for HDTV...

welp...I was going with foxcom using nforce4 but Cesman says PCI-E is not yet compiled into the kernel (will be) but I just don't feel like living in that bleeding edge consider if I hose this box, my brother, gf will be after me w/ a butcher knife.

- I'd skip the PCI-E for now too. Simply due to lack of PCI-E card availability and losing PCI slots as a result.

- It must be nice to know that your KnoppMyth system is such a success.

- A butcher knife? How crude and shortsighted of them. There must be a hundred better ways for them to "encourage" you to keep the KnoppMyth system in working order using handy household items without doing permanent damage.

Thanks chevybowtie, this is very good info. I have decided to postpone the AMD64 build for couple of months and put my first myth (knopmyth) on an old ECS K75SA with 1.4 Athlon T-Bird. Almost works, but TV (via Haupp. 250) is blurry and jittery. After I get some experience with Myth I will probably want to build better box and get some of the air HDTV.

From what I can see you have mobo w/VIA chipset that works well. I was a little "nforce-works" biased, so this is good news since it opens more mobo options.

??About external CR-RW. ??
Is it standard external CD-RW or you bought third party enclosure. I would be interested if I could take out my internal DVDRW and put it in external enclosure. This way DVDR could be used to backup my other PCs.