would a dual pentium 3 1ghz with a software encoder dvb-t tv card setup be fast enough to record 1 channel while watching another? Because im not quite sure how the two processers work, do they work together to give 2ghz or does one do one job and the other do another? thanks in advance for any help!

I'm a little out of my element with DVB, but my understand is that it is already encoded in MPEG2-TS, just like our ATSC broadcasts in the US. If so, there is no "encoding" that needs to be done to receive a broadcast. It just streams the MPEG2-TS file to disk.

Decoding, on the other hand, is always a chore. I don't know if a 1GHz P3 is enough, but I doubt it. You'll need some sort of hardware boost, and the only one I know of is called XvMC. So far this technology looks encouraging, but it isn't ready for "prime time" as far as I know.

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what i ment was using two pentium 3 1ghz processors together in one motherboard, would that still not be enough? thanks for the reply

might handle sd, but deffinately not hd as the decoding is not really threaded.

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Xsecrets

Yes, I knew you meant a dual-processor motherboard. You said "DVB card with software encoding" and I said, "I don't think there is such a thing." Along with, "hardware encoding is pretty low stress, so CAPTURING the shows is no big deal."

But, I added, "playing back video IS a big deal, and your P3 is probably going to suck."

Some of the words were altered to improve comprehension.

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In my MythTV box, i can record one channel while watching it, using a DVB card and I use roughly 5% CPU.

THis is a PIII 500

SD of course.

On my PIII 733 with the same card etc I can record HD, but not watch it.

Andrew