I've got a spare machine, and my VCR just fell and broke.  So I'm thinking 
"new VCR $40, TV card $30 and then running a knoppix-with-mythtv sort of thing". 
 But I have some basic questions.


1.  Do I *need* a network and downloaded schedules, or can I just use it by 
specifying start- and stop-times like an old-fashioned VCR?  Networking the box 
is out of the question (having an old desktop with no front bezel in the room 
is already enough of a sacrifice)

2.  How will performance be?  Since I'm gonna get the cheapest card I can 
find, or possibly scavenge a BT878 card from my box, the TV card will be 
unaccelerated.

3.  What's the best setup for the hardware?  Will I lose too much memory by 
using a bootable CD?  I thought there were a few bootable mythtv discs now.  
Can any of these be used to migrate to a hard-disc-based install?

4.  Is it fool-proof?  Got people here who aren't exactly techie.

5.  If I were to get something like an external numpad (like they made for 
laptops), would it provide enough controls to serve as a wired remote?  Wireless 
remotes are a hassle.

Hardware:
Duron 1600 - 256M DDR2100 - 80Gb Maxtor drive (DMA-133, 7200rpm), Radeon 7000 
with TV-out, ECS K7S5A mobo with its sound.

What I know of performance:  In Windows 2000, a Duron 1600 rig with 512M of 
memory and the Avermedia pack-in PVR software produced decent MPEG-2 
recordings, with about 20 percent of the files going bad, likely due to 100 percent load 
created by the task (switching the rig to an A64 3200+ fixed it right up. :D) 
 Clocking the machine at 1980 (FSB=165) produced a crash about once a day, so 
its effects on the files couldn't be evaluated well.