[mythtvnz] Hardware questions

[Nick Rout]

On Sat, Feb 14, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Craig Whitmore <lennon at orcon.net.nz> wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-02-14 at 09:57 +1300, matthew pearce wrote:
>> Hi all.
>>
>> I have found this on Pb technologies and wondered if anybody had any
>> good reasons not to use it for Mythtv.
>>
>> EX-LEASED IBM Netvista 8188 P4 3.2 512MB, 40GB, DVD combo, XP Pro
>>
>> PB Everyday low Price: $265.47 +gst ($298.66 incl)
>>
>> I have a 120 Gb hard drive which I would swap into it instead of the
>> 40 gb. (although the list says even this is way too small, it should
>> do for the time being.)
>>
>> I was wondering if this box would have enough grunt to be a combined
>> backend/frontend and be suitable for HD use in the future.
>>
>
> Sorry but it won't be fast enough for HD unless you can find an AGP card
> which is supported for the NVIDIA drivers for vdpau (which I don't think
> so).
>
> As for SD on this machine.. I am pretty sure it won't be vey good.
>
> $300 for this type of machine IMHO sounds a little expensive....
> You may have a very small bugdet, but spending a little bit more $$ may
> get a much better machine..
>
>
>> Also if this is a reasonable price.
>>
>> I think (hope) it has an AGP slot in it and one PCI slot.
>>
>> one last Q:
>> Does the Hauppauge PVR-3000 combined DVB-S and analog card have good
>> mythtv support?
>
> the HVR3000 and HVR4000 both work under Linux
>
> Thanks
>

More or less what Craig said, but it WOULD do the trick for SD. My
celeron 2.4 is fine, except I stopped it commflagging during playback
as it was a little stuttery.

I have just bought a HP Compaq D7100 for $175 plus postage. It has a
2.8GHz P4 and a PCIe 16x slot. I intend to try out HD using VDPAU. It
also has 2 PCI slots but only half height so I am not sure if I will
be able to put a tuner in it.  (The Celeron 2.4 is presently a BE/FE
and I will move it to just BE and use the VDPAU machine as a FE,
hopefully)

It has no hard drive at that price, but as a FE only it will be fine
with a small old one that I have somewhere, or maybe even diskless/CF.

Hmm the guy who looked after our house last weekend left his 4GB CF
card for his camera behind. I wonder if he would mind....

N