[mythtvnz] Hardware Recommendations

[David Kirk]

Hey everyone,

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.

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.

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.

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?

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
http://www.justtech.co.nz/shop/satellite-equipment/tbs-6980-pci-e-dvb-s2-dual-tuner-card.
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?

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?

I guess I'll need a video card that has component outputs to the TV.

What else do I need to consider?


Thanks

David Kirk
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