Does anyone here run MythTV?

Valve1138 said:
You can get HD tuners for less than $75 now. Like the Avermedia A180.

There's also the HDHomeRun which is a dual tuner ATSC/QAM network device for $170. I have one and it kicks ass.
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Most Avermedia cards are a piece of shit. Do not get one unless you plan on running MCE as chances are that is the only place it will run without any problems.

A good card to get right now is the Hauppauge HVR-1600. It runs around $109 retail, and $90 online. It has an analog and a ATSC tuner, the plus is that both can be used at the same time. I do not know about Linux support, but I doubt there is much, except for the analog part (its very similar to a pvr-150 in that way) but Sage and BeyondTV supports it just fine. I run it and two PVR-150s in a machine now and love it.

The only negative I can say about it is that it does not support unencrypted QAM, so its over the air only, I live in Dunwoody so its not a big deal, but if you live in fringe areas you may have some trouble. As it was said before, get a HDHome run or if you have an old box, stick a DVICO fusion 5 or similar, along with EVO-Soft and call it a day http://www.evo4tv.com/
 
Sage has a plugin that allows it to control your cable box via the serial port on the back. http://sourceforge.net/projects/multidcttuner/ You can also get an IRblaster or a USBUIRT and do the same thing. I imagine myth is similar. http://sage-community.org/index.cgi/wiki/SageRemotesLinks

I thought about trying Myth but I had issues with the system I was using, and Sage did all I wanted to do. I would try myth again but I have zero experience with command line linux so thats out. If you dont want to pay the cash check out GB-PVR and mediaportal as they are pretty decent nowadays as well.
 
Ryokurin said:
Most Avermedia cards are a piece of shit. Do not get one unless you plan on running MCE as chances are that is the only place it will run without any problems.

A good card to get right now is the Hauppauge HVR-1600. It runs around $109 retail, and $90 online. It has an analog and a ATSC tuner, the plus is that both can be used at the same time. I do not know about Linux support, but I doubt there is much, except for the analog part (its very similar to a pvr-150 in that way) but Sage and BeyondTV supports it just fine. I run it and two PVR-150s in a machine now and love it.

The only negative I can say about it is that it does not support unencrypted QAM, so its over the air only, I live in Dunwoody so its not a big deal, but if you live in fringe areas you may have some trouble. As it was said before, get a HDHome run or if you have an old box, stick a DVICO fusion 5 or similar, along with EVO-Soft and call it a day http://www.evo4tv.com/
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Crap.
Hardware known NOT to work and other issues

* Hauppauge WinTV-D or -HD (no driver)
* Hauppauge WinTV-USB series
* Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-usb (model 602), or WinTV-PVR-PCI (model 880) cards (no driver - this is not the PVR-250/350 series of cards supported by the IvyTV driver)
* Hauppauge HVR-1600. (no driver). NOTE: There have been reports that Hauppauge is putting the HVR-1600 inside of the PVR-150 box; if you're purchasing a retail PVR-150, carefully examine the box - there should be some indication that the hardware inside is actually a HVR-1600 and not a PVR-150. Check the Supported Hardware ( http://www.ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Supported_hardware) page of the ivtv driver for updated support information.
* ATI All-in-Wonder series
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Can you recommend one from this list?
There are a number of HDTV cards with Linux drivers which are known to operate in the United States; a complete list of cards with DVB drivers can be found at http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATSC_cards Some cards support capture of unencrypted digital cable TV (utilizing QAM256), others will only work with Over The Air signals captured with an antenna (with 8VSB).

Cards that have been reported to work include:

* pcHDTV HD-2000, Air2PC PCI rev 1-3 (8VSB only)
* SiliconDust HDHomeRun (8VSB, QAM256)
* pcHDTV HD-3000/5500 (8VSB, QAM256)
* Air2PC HD-5000 (8VSB, QAM256)
* DViCO Fusion HDTV Lite/Gold 5 (8VSB, QAM256)
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The HDHomeRun, or the Dvico Fusion. Pretty much the others are Linux only cards, so I don't know too much about them. I was actually considering buying the Dvico before I moved to my own place (I dont want a 100 dollar cable bill for hd)
 
I know hauppauge sells a tv card that has an ir in/out and all you have to do is put the ir out over any ir port on your tv/cable/box/dvd/vcr and it controls it.

though, before you buy ANY hardware, make sure it works with Linux and no major issues with installation. it's not worth the headache.
 
Ryokurin said:
Most Avermedia cards are a piece of shit. Do not get one unless you plan on running MCE as chances are that is the only place it will run without any problems.

As it was said before, get a HDHome run or if you have an old box, stick a DVICO fusion 5 or similar, along with EVO-Soft and call it a day http://www.evo4tv.com/
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A lot of people run the Aver A180 with Sage and they work just fine.

That Evo-Soft product looks promising but $45 for something that only supports one tuner at present is a waste of money. They keep saying they'll support more, but haven't been too informative lately. I wouldn't buy it until they actually support 2 or more tuners.
 
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Fly, whats your goal here? Do you just want to record off your cable box (or boxes)? Do you want to add some HDTV recording capability to this? Would the HDTV be from an antenna or the free broadcast channels from your cable company?

What about ripped DVD's and stored videos and the like?
 
Valve1138 said:
Fly, whats your goal here? Do you just want to record off your cable box (or boxes)? Do you want to add some HDTV recording capability to this? Would the HDTV be from an antenna or the free broadcast channels from your cable company?

What about ripped DVD's and stored videos and the like?
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To be honest, it just seems like a neat learning experience. I have a DVR from Verizon, but the interface is MEH at best. So I'd be looking for DVR features, along with HD features (mostly for time shifting, I don't currently DVR anything in HD), and finally some media storage as I download quite a few TV shows and/or movies.
 
Do you have a spare PC kicking around? I'd grab a decent tuner that works with everything, like a Hauppauge PVR-150, and a USB-UIRT IR blaster, and just start trying out the various HTPC software. You can get them from PCalchemy for $65 I think. The one that doesn't come with the shitty Hauppauge remote.

Then once you figure out what you like and don't like spend a few more dollars on some other hardware.
 
Valve1138 said:
Do you have a spare PC kicking around? I'd grab a decent tuner that works with everything, like a Hauppauge PVR-150, and a USB-UIRT IR blaster, and just start trying out the various HTPC software. You can get them from PCalchemy for $65 I think. The one that doesn't come with the shitty Hauppauge remote.

Then once you figure out what you like and don't like spend a few more dollars on some other hardware.
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Yeah, I got a P4 2Ghz w/ a GB of RAM that Im not using. I think I need a bigger hard drive in it tho. $65 seems like a small enough amount to test with. I shall do that. Does the brand of USB-UIRT IR blaster matter?
 
fly said:
Yeah, I got a P4 2Ghz w/ a GB of RAM that Im not using. I think I need a bigger hard drive in it tho. $65 seems like a small enough amount to test with. I shall do that. Does the brand of USB-UIRT IR blaster matter?
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Here's the IR blaster a lot of people use: http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_in...trols?osCsid=84ef112342587b3a71ab173ea2211382

I have one myself for Sage, works great and can control up to 3 boxes with additional add-on IR blaster eyes. Plus it's a receiver so you can pair it up with a universal remote of choice depending on the software you're using.

How bigs the drive you have? I recommend one smallish drive for the OS, and then seperate media hard drives. When you want to upgrade or change OS's it makes a lot easier. Plus you won't have the OS thrashign around ont he media drives when it's doing shit.
 
I'm running a 160gig myself. 10 gigs set for the os, and the rest for video, but I usually dont let things sit on it forever. I use Standard DVD quality and it comes up to around 3.15 gigs an hour in sdtv, and 6 gigs an hour for HD 720p and 8.6 gigs for 1080i

I can't really comment on the ir blaster as I use a 19 inch computer monitor as a screen. When I had a TV it was a 19 inch crapmavox that didnt need it.
 
Valve1138 said:
Here's the IR blaster a lot of people use: http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_in...trols?osCsid=84ef112342587b3a71ab173ea2211382

I have one myself for Sage, works great and can control up to 3 boxes with additional add-on IR blaster eyes. Plus it's a receiver so you can pair it up with a universal remote of choice depending on the software you're using.

How bigs the drive you have? I recommend one smallish drive for the OS, and then seperate media hard drives. When you want to upgrade or change OS's it makes a lot easier. Plus you won't have the OS thrashign around ont he media drives when it's doing shit.
Click to expand...

I think it has a single 80gb drive in it, which according to Ry may work (for now)...
 
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