[GLLUG] MythTV specs

Mon Nov 30 16:13:31 EST 2009

Ranti Junus wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I'm thinking about setting up MythTV and have read their documentation
> on their website.
> I wonder if any of you have MythTV and willing to share your HW specs
> and which OS do you use?
>
>
> thanks,
> ranti.
>
>
>    
Hi Ranti,

I've been thinking of putting a mythbox together and here's what I've 
come up with. You may find some of this useful in your build. Hold on -- 
this is going to be a long one.

MOTHERBOARD

MSI 785GM-E65 AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130233&cm_re=msi_785GM-_-13-130-233-_-Product
This board has all the ports that you may need for a myth box, including 
HDMI and optical audio.

It has one peccadillo, however. Cool'n'Quiet doesn't work on this board 
with BIOS Version 2.3. MSI has promised that the next version of the 
BIOS (2.4) will fix this. I would probably hold off buying this board 
until they release this version of the BIOS, or expect to have to 
reflash the BIOS after building the mythbox. Based on past experience, 
the new BIOS will come out within the next few weeks.

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=bios&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1864

Note: this board can handle late-model TVs well but may have trouble 
with older sets that don't have HDMI. If your set does not have HDMI 
then you would need to get either an A/V receiver (that can convert the 
HDMI signal to component or composite or s-video), or a discrete video 
card. If you should go down the s-video route, be careful about video 
cards that say they can output s-video. Some of those cards require you 
to jump through hoops to get s-video working. If your TV supports HDMI, 
try to stick with that input (unless you have a Philips HDTV -- some of 
them have trouble with audio over HDMI -- in which case you would 
probably want to use an A/V receiver).

I don't know whether this board is capable of supporting CableCard 
(encrypted QAM). You would have to run something like 
http://www.dougknox.com/vista/ocurbioschk.htm to check this capability. 
Encrypted QAM does not interest me because it requires paying both a 
cable bill and a cablecard bill and OTA gives me everything I need, but 
if encrypted-QAM is important to you then a number of suggestions in 
this email should probably be disregarded. In fact, I'd probably just 
purchase a Tivo if I needed encrypted-QAM since that would probably be 
cheaper.

Here is a review of the board:
     http://www.silentpcreview.com/article967-page11.html

CPU

You don't need anything fancy as long as you aren't building a game machine.
AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W 
Dual-Core Processor - Retail
     http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688
If you don't mind spending more on the CPU, you could get a CPU that has 
a 45W thermal design power (TDP). But the AMD 240 will suffice as long 
as the box is adequately ventilated.

If you have more than $58 to spend on a CPU then you may want to check out,
     http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu,2466-2.html
(but these CPUs are over-kill for HD tv).

MEMORY

There are few memory bargains since we are in the middle of the 
switchover from DDR2 to DDR3 and Windows 7 just came out and the 
Christmas season is putting a strain on supplies. When a bargain is 
advertised it usually sells out quickly. Memory is over-priced right 
now, so unless you are lucky enough to find a decent price for memory I 
would wait until after Christmas to purchase or possibly scavenge old 
memory you may already own (you don't need much).

This board comes with 128 MB sideport memory, which means only 128 MB 
additional memory needs to be stolen from system memory to support hd video.

If you only need this box to perform HTPC duties then 1 GB ram is all 
that is required. (Apple gets away with just 256 MB in their box.)

HDD

I list three drive choices at three sizes: 0.5TB, 1TB, and 1.5TB.

     SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 
3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
     http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

     SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 
3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
     http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

     Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5 TB SATA 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Hard 
Drive ST31500341AS
     http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00066IJPQ/ref=s9_simz_gw_s1_p23_t2
     This drive used to have firmware problems but they have been fixed.

HD TUNER/ENCODER

Hauppauge 1229 WinTV-HVR-2250 White Box for System Builders Dual Hybrid 
PCI-E TV Tuner Board
The Linux driver for this is brand new and only handles clear-QAM and 
digital (no analog). Since analog is old technology this shouldn't be a 
problem.  Even if you are still receiving analog signals these channels 
are rapidly being converted to compressed digital because broadcasters 
can fit up to three digital channels on one standard-def channel 
(depending on how much they decide to compress the signal). If you want 
a fascinating read on which signal has the best picture quality (digital 
vs standard-def, ota vs cable), check out this thread:
     http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?message.uid=105507

Because this driver is brand new it may require futzing with the kernel. 
If you are not comfortable with doing that then this tuner is probably 
not a good idea. "White box" means it doesn't come with the standard 
remote, which is good because there are better remotes.

Note: this tuner does not support CableCard (if that is important to 
you). CableCard support is only required if you want to connect to a 
cable connection and legally decode encrypted QAM channels. This support 
is not necessary for OTA.

VIDEO

No discrete video card required. The integrated HD 4200 is sufficient as 
long as you don't need to use this as a game machine.

There are several AMD drivers that can be used with this GPU. The 
proprietary driver is probably more stable than the open source driver. 
If you need to stay with all open-source then this board may not be 
right for you.

AUDIO

Integrated audio Realtek ALC889 chip. This is a high-end, consumer-level 
audio chip that may require installing ALSA and pulse-audio from SVN 
since this chip is kind of new.

The motherboard supports 2-channel LPCM on the HDMI cable (not 7 
channel!), but that's what 99% of all PVRs do as well so this isn't that 
big of a deal. It's pretty much the equivalent sound that you would get 
from Tivo (except Tivo is THX certified). There is very few media that 
can do 7-channel audio (some blu-ray titles). If you have an A/V 
receiver it can decode 2-channel stereo into Dolby so that it seems like 
you have 5.1 channel audio.

REMOTE

Note that all remotes mentioned here are infrared, which means that 
line-of-sight usage is required and max range is about 30 feet. If you 
need a remote that can work through walls then you will probably want an 
RF (radio frequency) remote, which are two to three times more expensive.

was $21, now $32  Adesso ARC-1100 - Remote control - infrared
     Note: you will probably have to do some work to get this remote to 
work with mythtv, but you will probably end up with a more satisfactory 
viewing experience if you decide to expend the effort. If you don't like 
tinkering with config files, however, there are better choices.
     http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Adesso_ARC-1100

http://www.amazon.com/Adesso-ARC-1100-Remote-control-infrared/dp/B000XVNJRM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258210773&sr=8-1
     http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16823166095

If you are looking for a simple IR remote that is guaranteed to work 
with Linux,
     http://www.mythpvr.com/mythtv/hardware/streamzap-pc-remote-control.html

OS

If you want to see what OSs people are using, see,
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/engine?do=post_view_flat;post=409105;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;list=mythtv

XBMC

If you want to run both XBMC and MythTV side by side check out,

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/linux-tutorials-guides/33370-myth-tweak-switch-between-myth-xbmc-via-remote.html
AND
     http://blog.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49583&page=2

FLASH

If you decide to access Flash sites such as hulu or youtube, flash may 
occasionally hiccup. Don't worry, the flash player is being updated so 
that it uses the GPU for hardware acceleration.
     http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/
You can get a beta flash player today, but it's probably too unstable 
for everyday use. I would stick with version 10 until 10.1 comes out of 
beta and plan on updating this driver when it becomes available.

FRONT-END EXTENDER

If you want additional low-cost front-ends, check out,

http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-silent-standalone-xbmc-media-center-on-the-cheap
         [Revo works with mythtv, too]

http://lifehacker.com/5406563/build-a-cheap-but-powerful-boxee-media-center

CABLE / SET-TOP BOX (STB) / CABLECARD

Note I didn't mention anything about controlling a cable set-top box. 
For that, you'd need either an IR blaster or program your remote to 
blast both myth and cable codes, but I'm not going to get into this.

The tuner recommended above does /not/ handle cablecard. What that means 
is that you wont be able to decode encrypted cable channels. A tuner 
that can accept cablecard is about 3X more expensive and requires 
installation by your cable company. Cable companies are required by law 
to provide a subset of stations without encryption, however, but you'll 
probably get a better picture by using an over-the-air (OTA) signal.

ANTENNA

If you live within 25 miles of your broadcasters, I recommend the
     Winegard SS 3000 Indoor UHF/VHF Antenna
I pick up one station that is broadcasting 38 miles away with this 
little antenna.

If interested, you local broadcast locations can be located at 
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

HDMI CABLE

If you need to purchase an HDMI cable, inexpensive cables work as well 
as expensive cables since the signal is completely digital.

There, that wasn't so hard.  :)
HTH,

Lou Vanek