[TriLUG] MythTV box recommendations?

[Chess Griffin]

Charles Mangin wrote:
> after our flaky Time Warner DVR ate the Superbowl*, i now have spousal
> approval to try and build a mythTV or other similar DVR.
> 
> i'm looking for hardware recommendations and caveats with working with
> TWC for this. what do i need to get from them - a cablecard? what about
> recording more than one show at a time, do i need two cards? will i even
> be able to get TWC to give me these things without selling my soul to them?
> 
> and, typically being a Mac guy, i'm not terribly familiar with what i'll
> need for the box itself. any recommendations or kits for starting point
> would be immensely helpful.
> 
> 
> 
> *we were playing it delayed, but the DVR barfed, and we lost the second
> and third quarters.
> 
> 

I do not believe cablecards work in MythTV, but essentially you'll need
at least a MythTV combined backend/frontend server to do the capture and
transcoding, with optional frontends elsewhere you may want to access
your recordings.  Many folks start with one or more Hauppauge PVR-150
capture cards for standard definition recordings.  I have one of those
and also a Hauppauge PVR-1212 for high def recordings.  The PVR-150 uses
a straight cable connection to the wall, but the 1212 needs a cable box.
 I can record two shows this way and both work great, but I am not sure
how long the analog feed will last anymore now that the digital
conversion has occurred.  Lots of folks like the SiliconDust HD Homerun
for OTA HD recordings.  Other folks use QAM recordings for unencrypted
HD, but I have never tried that.  I recommend using Mythbuntu or
Mythdora or one of the other Myth-specific distros to install.

My backend/frontend is a fairly beefy server, since it has to do the
recording and transcoding.  You can probably build the backend/frontend
for a few hundred dollars, depending on what type of capture device you
use and depending on what kind of parts you happen to have laying
around.  I also have two Zotac Nvidia Ion frontends, which are small,
fanless, and work great as front ends.

The MythTV wiki and mailing list are excellent resources, and the
Mythcast podcast is great too.

Good luck!

-- 
Chess Griffin