I've been researching HTPC's for a while and I think I'm ready to build a dedicated box for my parents. (It's this or buying a tivo.) I have a few questions first though, just to make sure I'm not overlooking anything.

First off, I was thinking of building off a Pundit-R system but I'll be putting two tuner cards in. Has there been any problems fitting two cards in there?

Video quality is of course very important so will the on-board s-video out be good enough quality? I've seen some reports of video card's s-video output being sub-par but nothing definite. If this isn't good enough, I'd step up one of the two planned WinTV-PVR250's to a PVR350 to use the output on that card if thats possible.

Also, what's the difference between the PVR150 and PVR250?

This may be a stupid question, but how stable and 'transparent' is mythTV? Stability is big issue as I won't be around to fix it if something breaks. What I mean by transparent is how intuitive it is I guess. My mom (not a techie but still mostly computer-literate) will be the primary user and it needs to be usable for her.

I stumbled upon the MythTV BurnDVD module/scripts and the UI for it. This feature would be invaluable for my mom but how well does it work? How easy is it to use?

I think thats all my questions for now. Thanks in advance for any answers.

-Brian

Oh, one more thing, I've read there's difficulties in getting the audio in the Pundit-R to work with the current release of KnoppMyth. Do you think this would be a good reason to switch to a Pundit (No R) instead? It looks like the only differences are the video and sound or am I missing something?

I've heard the pundit systems are tight for two tuner cards, but it will work, my little brother has two m179's in an original pundit.

not sure if the svid out of the pundit-r will even work, as it is ati based. using a pvr350 should work, but the install will be a bit more complicated.

different chips on them, the pvr150 does not have a stable official driver yet. You'd be better off sticking with the 250 for now.

In my experience a system can be very stable, but you will need to run it for a week or two to make sure there are no odd bugs in it before putting it into production.

My mother an non techie and barely computer literate does have a bit of difficulty with the box my little brother built, mostly due to the ati remote wonder and the way the keys are mapped on it, In my opinion the grey hauppage remote is much easier to use.

never used these myself, maybe someone else can comment on them.


one last thing. At this point the support for the pundit-R in knoppmyth is a bit lacking. You may want to concider a different box or wait till R5 comes out.(unfortunately I don't see this happening right away. still much work to be done)

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Xsecrets

Thanks Xsecrets.


Is there support for the Pundir non-Rs? specifically this one (the Pundit AB-P2600): http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=Pundit&langs=01
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 026&depa=0

The regular pundit's that use the sis chipset are supported yes. unfortunately there are some network issues since R4V3, but the tvout works fine. This is what my little brother uses, and a friend of his. Once again the issues plaguing this should be fixed in the next version.

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Xsecrets

Ok great, looks like I'm all set, thanks again.

A couple more question actually, what is the difference between a PVR250 and a PVR250-MCE?
If a site lists a PVR250 with "Gateway Part #6002365" is this the same thing?
This same Gateway part doesn't come with a remote, but is much cheaper, could I buy a replacement remote from Hauppauge and have it work?
While on the topic, how does the remote with the PVR250 work? Is there an IR reciever or is the card radio? And how does having two PVR250s work, as in, can they both be controled by one remote?

the pvr250 mce's don't have a remote, and you cannot add a remote, they don't have the port. As for how the remote works on cards that have it there is a small port on the card that you plug in an ir receiver to (it comes with the card) and everything can and should be controlled with one remote.

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Xsecrets

I assume this does not have the IR port, correct? This is the Gateway one:



To save money, could I get one Gateway or MCE one and one Retail one for the IR and remote?

everything in your last post is correct.

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

Xsecrets

ok, thanks again!