I am currently doing my research to build a pvr with mythTV. I want something solid that will last.

Currently this is what I am looking into for hardware like this
http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-view_pvr ... temid=wes2

I would use AMD 64 dual core 4200 with 1gb ram, 400 gig seagate SATA, the built in geforce 6100 with built in audio (same motherboard as link above).
I read one of the four things to stay away from is SATA boot drives, I have an old 9 EIDE would that be fine to use as boot, then put everything on the 400gig.

Also will there be any problems having a 64 bit processor? Will it run at 32bit like if you have a non 64 bit windows OS it just runs fine as 32 bit with no extra performance? Wasn't sure about the driver situation or if there is a 64 bit version of knoppmyth. I have Windows XP 64 on another comp and certain things lack driver support (most wireless cards).

I was also going to use 3 Air2PC ATSC. I currently do not have HDTV, not sure when I will get it but figured I would build for the future. It shouldn't be a problem attaching just digital cable to those cards?

My linux experience is limited, a few months ago I installed federa core 5, but that was just through VMWare, and I only used it for some unix/linux specific c++ programming.

I would most likely try Knoppmyth first especially since it seems like this is a good active community, but I would not be adverse to trying FC5 only because there seems to be a decent number of resources on the web to help. My main concern is just having a 64 bit processor and no driver support.

Thanks for any and all comments, I apologize if I should not have asked this question, but I don't want to buy anything that will not work together and I have limited experience with linux.

-Maz

You've got a fair amount of overkill in your CPU. You simply don't need that much. The more CPU you have the hotter it will be, which means more fans, which means more noise or more cost to reduce the noise.

Are you familiar with the KRP (KnoppMyth Reference Platform)? It is a set of hardware that has been certified to work together out of the box. Currently the only system that is a certified KRP system is the Dragon from Mythic.tv. You can be from Boot to MythTV in just 17 minutes and everything works out of the box. I have two Dragons that I built myself, but seeing as parts are getting harder to find and Mythic.tv has lowered the price and updated it to two HD5000's, it is a hard option to turn away. If I need another frontend, I'll likely add another Dragon to my mix.



http://mythic.tv/product_info.php?cPath ... 3a1a397b82

Thanks for the information. Using those at the very least for a reference should help. Part of the reason to make this is also to learn and do it myself, of course I could easily hit my head against the wall repeatedly doing this.

Also I feel kinda dumb for not thinking of this earlier, but how do I connect it to my computer, I take the coax from the wall to my tuner cards, or do I take the coax from the digital cable box to my tuner card(s)?

For the first 6 months at least I will use this with digital cable, no plans of upgrading to HD until my lease would run out if I chose to move, just want to leave that option of upgrading this to HD easier.

-Matt

Some digital cable boxes have firewire out ports...if yours does, you most likely can use that and then you dont need any tuner card at all. However if you want to record multiple things at once, you would need multiple digital cable boxes and multiple firewire connections on your PVR.

If you use the HD5000 tuners that the Dragon uses, then you can either pull the over the air (OTA) digital/hd channels or you can use QAM which is a method of putting the digital channels across the coax. I use the latter and I get all the normal "local" digital channels in both their SD and HD versions as well as a few other unencrypted "cable" channels.

QAM is more difficult to set up than OTA with the current version of KnoppMyth, however when Myth 0.20 is rolled into KM then it should be easier to set up.

I dont use the firewire method because I dont want to pay the cable company for the digital boxes. Probably silly considering the amount of cash I've spent on the four HD5000 cards I have, but none the less...I own the cards and I prefer that.

Yea I have a motorola cable box which I read that at least certain models are supported. I was thinking of maybe just one HD5000 for now and using firewire if possible, I want to be able to record one show while watching another. I live with three other guys who don't always like to watch what I want to. What I think I will try tonight, if i can find a firewire cable around my place is to load up knoppMyth on a VMWare and see if I can get it going with firewire. At least it will give me some practice anyway.

How long does it take usually to update knoppMyth with a new version of Myth?

Thanks a lot for your input it is very helpful

-Matt

Awhile, which is a good thing. It lets the dust settle on the new release and it allows for plenty of time for the KM developers and testers to release a solid product. If I was to wager a broad guess based on past releases...a couple months at best.