Hi, recently I came across this site, and it's very interesting, so I've decided to build my own mythTV.

I read through as much documentation as I could find, some of it sunk in, and some of it left me confused. First off, I'm new to linux, but don't worry, I'm a quick learner, and I'm advanced enough in hardware to build a computer. So here's my questions, just don't laugh .

Obviously, I need several tv tuner cards, but what can each card do exactly. I'm under the impression that one card can play and record a channel, then each extra card can record another channel and be used for pip.

Second, does mythTV have support for lcd screens such as this one http://www.matrixorbital.com? Or is it possible to send messages to another program like LCDC, http://www.lcdc.cc?

Next, I also keep hearing about problems with live TV like not being able to watch it live, rather having to record it then play it back. Can someone explain this problem, and if there is one, a solution?

Alright, I still have a couple more, but I'll leave it at this for now. Any help is very much appreciated, and I'm sure this will help out many other people.

jtnw

you understand correctly on the tuner cards, although they are not actually used for the playback unless you are using the pvr350 each tuner allows you to tune an aditional channel simotaniously. if you have one tuner then you can watch livetv or record, if you have two tuners you can watch livetv and record or record two programs and it goes on like that as you add more. the other consideration as you add more tuners is processing power. not a big concern with pvr cards, but if you are using software encoding cards I don't think any computer will handle more than two.

well linux has support for the screens, but I'm not sure about mythtv, that is probably a question better asked over on the mythtv mailing lists.

Well the problems with livetv are generally one a few things. the DMA bug if you are trying to use via chipset and pvr250, the LAPIC bug if you are trying to use nforce2 and pvr250, or too small of cache. There are a few other odd instances, but most all are correctable. The one that is not is the DMA bug so if you are going with pvr250 I would avoid VIA chipsets.

Nice, thanks for your response.

Just a quick question, I know the backend can be on one machine, and the frontend on another, but does each frontend need it's own backend, or can they share one single server. If not, I could still share all the recordings over a network, right?

Thanks again,

jtnw

one backend can handle as many frontends as you have the bandwidth for. the other rule is every computer that has a tuner card has to be a backend, but you still have one Master backend.

Alright, thanks a bunch. That's all my questions.

jtnw

I have a km400 VIA chipset and have been playing with myth for a little while getting used to it. I love it. i dont have a capture card yet.. the pvr250-mce was looking good because of the ~90 dollar price tag. Is the DMA bug gonna screw me?? What do the VIA people use for cards? i would perfer not to use
obsecure cards that will never work right. Im basicly asking the via people what is working great for them???

-gr8nash

Well it's hard to say with the 400 chipset. some people when I was using via had problems with it, but many others didn't. basically any software encoder will not have dma issues with the via chipsets. And you may be ok with the 400, but I can't say that for sure. What I can say for sure is that any 133 or 266 chipset will most likely have the dma problems.

Sorry if that's not too informative, but just an overview of the situation as I've seen it.