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.
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