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.