[mythtvnz] tuner and playback of freeview HD DVB-T

[Aaron Drysdale]

>Hi
>
>I am new to this list and live in Christchurch.

>One of the first introductions to MythTV was a presentation
>by Nick Rout at the CLUG.
>
>I am just wondering what tuner I should use for DVB-T in NZ.

Welcome aboard Brent. I have been using Myth for about 9 months now, and
I am sure you will end up as pleased with it as I am.

>
>Should I just use the recommendations at
>http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Video_capture_card#DVB-T_cards_.28Terrestria
l_viewing.29
>or do I need a certain card to handle the NZ H.264?

That seems like a comprehensive list. I went with a straight Hauppauge
Nova-T 500 dual tuner card, and I am fairly happy with it. If you not
already familiar with it, google multirec. The advantage of going with a
dual tuner card is that you get the ability to record from pretty much
all of the channels simultaneously. I have tested recording 7 channels
and watching live TV at the same time. Of course you could do the same
by adding two single tuner cards.

>
>Are there any problems with capture to hard disk of the NZ
>DVB-T in MythTV?

None that I am aware of.

>Are there just problems with playback?

Plenty of those, but not insurmountable. The biggest thing is to make
sure you have an nVidia graphics card capable of VDPAU if you are
planning on using DVB-T. Then also if you try 0.21 then have a look at
Avenard's repository at http://www.avenard.org/media

>Are there problems with GNU/Linux?  (Does other software
>work better than MythTV?)

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10, but plan on waiting for 9.10 due soon as that is
apparently going to support Mythtv 0.22.

>
>I wonder if I should wait until MythTV 0.22 is released?

I would recommend this. Not that there is anything wrong with 0.21 - I
have been using it quite happily myself now for a while, but the problem
I think is that you invest such a lot of effort in tweaking Mythtv to
get it working perfectly that you end up reluctant to change again so
soon. If you do go ahead and start "playing" with 0.21, then I would
recommend writing down every little change you make so you can easily
recreate it. I regret not doing this myself earlier on. I am in for a
world of pain when I change I think :)

>I am currently running LinHES 6.00.09 with 1 DVB-S tuner.
>I have an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and a graphics card that
>should support VDPAU.
>I also have a motherboard with PCI-e slots, so it would be
>good to purchase a new tuner of this type.  It has limited
>PCI.
>
>Any suggestions would be great.  
>Let me know if you need more information about my system and
>I will check it when at home.
>
>Thanks
>Brent