[awaspaas]

Okay, thought some of you may be interested in this. It turned out to be a really fun project, and I learned a lot about hardware/Linux/drivers etc.

Hardware:
MicroATX motherboard and case
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Hauppauge PVR-350 capture card
512 MB RAM
120 GB HDD
Old DVD-RW from the closet

Software:
Fedora Core 3 Linux
MythTV

FC3 installed very easily - I just burned the DVD and it booted right up and installed. I followed the Fedora MythTV HOWTO website, which was extremely helpful in this. I got the OS installed, and used apt-get to do the updates, and install MythTV, ivtv (video card driver), lircd (IR remote sensor driver) and sound drivers.

I initially figured I'd use the PVR-350's video out (kill 2 birds right?) and setup was a bit of a pain, especially getting X to run from there (have the machine's desktop on the TV), but it got going after a couple hours. MythTV configuration is straightforward, as is lircd. (especially with the step-by-step on that website)

So, the machine failed after this - after a bunch of troubleshooting, it was bad RAM - so that was replaced and I was back in business, but then the power supply blew out. Turns out the stock 250W supply that came with the case wasn't sufficient. I found a reasonable 330W micro-ATX supply (which wasn't easy) and now it works like a charm...

Live TV and recording and time-shifting TV works great, but I couldn't get mplayer to play to the PVR-350's video out. I learned that this output is simply a framebuffer, and with the current drivers is not sufficient for playing decoded video to. So I've ordered an Nvidia FX5200 with TV-out, which will work much better for displaying TV and video files.

The interface is quite nice, especially with one of the nicer themes. Its functionality equals Tivo on the timeshifting and live-TV aspect, and rivals it with its integration of videos, music, pictures, etc. It also has built-in transcoder frontends so DVDs can be backed up and added to the library easily.

So, I'll update back if anybody's interested how it works once I get the new video card added.

[sideus]

Is there a similar setup for capturing and recording OTA HDTV with a DVI output to my HDTV?

[Amorya]

Originally posted by awaspaas:
I initially figured I'd use the PVR-350's video out (kill 2 birds right?) and setup was a bit of a pain, especially getting X to run from there (have the machine's desktop on the TV), but it got going after a couple hours. MythTV configuration is straightforward, as is lircd. (especially with the step-by-step on that website)

Buddy, I feel your pain!

Took me ages - not only did I have to deal with the PVR350, I also had to deal with it in PAL mode!

Here's my spec:

AMD Semperon 1.5ghz
256MB RAM
160GB HD (upgraded it yesterday)
DVD drive (not got it watching DVDs yet)
PVR350 capture card
Some cheapo motherboard.

I used KnoppMyth as my software. First install, I had to go out and buy a graphics card (since you need one before you can set up the PVR350). I started with R4 of Knoppmyth... it installed OK and ran on the monitor, but couldn't see the PVR350 at all. After a day of setting my uni computing society on it, we had it capturing TV, but it took another week to figure out TV output.

The situation ahs changed with R5 of Knoppmyth. I reinstalled yesterday when I put the new disk in, and it took me an hour or so. Some guy on the Knoppmyth forums posted a script that sets TV out on the PVR350, and so all I had to edit were two files to get it to run in PAL mode.

It's a wonderful piece of kit. Really makes watching TV easier compared to the ancient VCR I was using. I've got my eye on a digital satellite card now... 4 channels ain't enough any more

Amorya

[awaspaas]

Originally posted by sideus:
Is there a similar setup for capturing and recording OTA HDTV with a DVI output to my HDTV?

Sure is! You need this capture card: http://www.pchdtv.com/

[awaspaas]

Sweet, got it all up and running. Nvidia card for video out - all sound out thru the motherboard's built-in audio. I even had it do an NFS automount of the Movies dir from my Powermac, so I can watch all my downloaded HDTV stuff. All in all works great, except for a slight bit of interference (faint diagonal lines) on the TV screen - haven't tracked that down yet. Must have something leaking RF inside the box.