Hi All

I'm a complete newcomer to Linux and diy computers and was wondering what my chances were of building a Mythbox. I'm looking to capture two Freeview streams (WinTV Nova T seems likely) while watching a third recorded programme. Not really bothered about the edge stuff Games, Weather etc.

At a guess putting this into a single frontend box would mean a compromise that I don't want. Too noisy or underpowered or no physical space in a mini case. Am I right or could this be done? Anyone know of any similar setups where this worked.

If it requires a backend I was thinking of building a regular desktop, putting all the software, tuners etc in it until its working and then get a quiet frontend. Again does this seem reasonable?

In either case how do I decide on components? Which cpu, case, tuners etc will work well and fit together. I've looked through a few guides but all of them seem to be different enough to worry me. I've read people complain about poor quality tv out etc and want to avoid them if possible.

Thanks
Gary

There is no such thing has a MythTV frontend w/ a tuner card. If your MythTV box has a tuner card then it is a backend.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Entirely possible. Mini cases will make this a lot harder so lets skip them unless the size of a mid-tower is a deal breaker. I think you're talking DVB card which lowers the CPU requirement since the captured stream is already encoded. Don't know about the playback requirements but it think they're a bit lower than full on ATSC 1080i/1080p. (DVB folks please speak up!)

So start with a quiet case like the Antec SLK3000. Add a quiet power supply like the Seasonic S12-330 or 430. Choose an OEM CPU with low power usage and a nice quiet CPU cooler like the Zalman CNPS7000ALCU. If possible look for a motherboard with a passively cooled chipset. Sounds too simple? You can complicate things as much as you want as demonstrated by the folks at Silent PC Review http://www.silentpcreview.com/.

I'm not making specific CPU and MoBo recommendations because I really don't know what DVB playback takes. One of our friends from the EU or ANZ should be able to help you there...

I've found that my AMD 64 based setup runs quite cool and fairly quiet but isn't totally silent. I suspect that the case fan is the biggest issue (I'm looking into replacing it with a three speed one like theSLK3000 has) followed by the power supply fan and CPU cooler in no particular order. Adding sound dampening material to the inside of the case might reduce the noise a dB or two, but frankly with the TV sound on I really don't notice the noise from the case at all.

What kind of budget do you have? Anything can be achieved if you throw enough money at it!

Thanks for the quick replies.

mad_peddler - I'm thinking around 800 GBP max which works out at 1400 USD. If I can do it for 2/3 of that I'd like to though.

tjc - having a quiet mini tower would be great if it would be powerful enough. From what I've picked up the Nova T card doesn't have hardware encoding which means I'd need to potentially encode two streams in software while playing back a third. Still think its do-able?

You also made a few suggestions for parts. Thanks for that, I'll take a look at them. In some ways it would be easier if I had bits already and could just try slotting things together to see what works. But if I do this its all going to be paid for up front. I'll pay for my mistakes...

I thought the Nova-T was a DVB card and DVB was a pre-encoded MPEG stream... Someone please correct me if that's not true.

As for horespower, my AMD 64 3200+ had enough for live ATSC at 1080i when I last experimented with it (I've got serious signal quality problems however due to local conditions). The next couple steps up the AMD ladder (3500+, 3800+) don't add that much heat especially with the newer 90nm cores (Venice and later).

Ok so if I were using the suggestions above and going for a complete system in a single midi case with 2 WinTv Nova T (DVB cards - which do generate mpeg2 streams in hardware). I'd like it to be next to the tv so it needs to be as quiet as possible without getting into anything too custom.

Has anyone any suggestions for motherboards / CPU to handle two DVB captures and a playback at the same time which will keeping it cool and quiet?

Also should I go for built in sound or tv out in the motherboard or have sound and graphics cards ? Maybe I'm being stupid and the WinTv will come with tv out. If one of these isn't up to scratch in the mobo can I buy a card to provide a better option later or is it more complex than that?

This page has some similarities to what I want
http://mythic-beasts.com/~mark/random/mythtv/

Any chance I could copy this and get away with a quiet system. The bits I think might go wrong are too noisy or too many custom fiddly bits to go wrong for a first build computer (thermal paste, replacing fans etc). Finally the motherboard looks Via based which is on the hardware to avoid sticky post especially with Hauppage cards like the Nova T.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the basic questions.

Given your budget I would recommend a mini-itx system.

Have a look at www.itx-warehouse.co.uk

Despite what you saw on the sticky, VIA MII motherboards are easy to set up with Nova-T's. However I have never tried it with 2 Nova-T's. The main problem would be noise because there is one on the motherboard, and the case.

My case, Casetronic Travla C137 120W is pretty sleek but it is admittedly quite loud. You could, however, put it in a sound dampening cabinet as long as it doesn't get too hot in there.

Hard drives are loud so get a 2.5" HD rather than a 3.5" one.