Hey everyone,<br><br>I've been lurking on the list for a while. Now I'm finally going to get around to building my first MythTV box. I was hoping I could get some recommendations from you all.<br><br>I have a satellite dish setup already and after a few adjustments I'm getting a pretty good signal. We don't have a flash LCD or plasma TV. We are happy with our CRT for now, so I don't need to bother with DVB-T. We only watch the Freeview channels. We don't have Sky.<br>
<br>Basically what I want is a small quiet PC sitting under the TV with a dual DVB-S tuner card and a big hard drive for storing recordings. I'd like to be able to record 1 or 2 channels at the same time and also be able to watch recorded programs at the same time. Front end and backend will be on the same PC.<br>
<br>Firstly I'll need a PC to install on. How grunty does it need to be for what I am using it. Should I get a full blown PC or is there something less power hungry around? I've seen the Zotac Ion, but it doesn't seem to have any PCI slots for adding a tuner. I assume people use these as frontends only. Is there something else similar that might be suitable or do I need something with more grunt for a backend/frontend setup?<br>
<br>I'll also need some tuners. I've had a quick look around and found the TBS 6980 PCI-E DVB-S2 Dual Tuner Card <a href="http://www.justtech.co.nz/shop/satellite-equipment/tbs-6980-pci-e-dvb-s2-dual-tuner-card" target="_blank">http://www.justtech.co.nz/shop/satellite-equipment/tbs-6980-pci-e-dvb-s2-dual-tuner-card</a>. It comes with a remote and IR receiver and it is apparently supported by Linux. Has anyone had any experience with this card, or is there something else I should consider?<br>
<br>Is it really necessary to have 2 tuners? I've heard that a single tuner can stream multiple channels at the same time. Is this true? Can I have a single tuner record 2 or 3 channels at the same time? Will that allow me to watch live TV at the same time if I want to?<br>
<br>I guess I'll need a video card that has component outputs to the TV.<br><br>What else do I need to consider?<br><br><br clear="all">Thanks<br><br>David Kirk<br><br>