I've got a Dell Optiplex 280 that my company got rid of. It's a 2.8Ghz, 1G memory, NVidia FX5200, and the two ATI 550's. This is more than enough computer to record 2 shows and watch another (all standard definition). If you want to do HD, you'll need a bit more horsepower, but not an incredible amount. The one thing to be wary of is the tuner card that you buy. Lots of the cheaper ones need a loopback to record sound (you run a wire from line out on your tuner card to line in on your soundcard) and there are lots of timing issues that come up with that along with the fact you'll only be able to record one show at a time. Also, if you get a card that does mpeg compression on the card, you'll barely see any cpu usage and can save it for when your watching the programs....decoding the mpeg's does take a lot.
On 4/27/07, Greg Morphis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > what kind of hard ware are you running.. seems like you don't really > need anything fancy.. at least not from what I'm seeing by searching > through forums > > On 4/27/07, Zaphod Beeblebrox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'm going through this myself. So far I haven't found a windows > > solution that I like. That said, I'm going to try out Windows Media > > Center. I've tried GB-PVR, BeyondTV, SageTV and a couple of others > > that aren't even worth mentioning. GB-PVR doesn't always like to > > record the scheduled programs. BeyondTV only does TV and you have to > > pay extra if you want to access video, music, dvd's. SageTv does a > > pretty good job at it all and even has a cool satellite unit for about > > $100 that you can hook up to other tv's and use the SageTv computer as > > a server. That said, there's been a lot of times that SageTV has > > quit, or it might be windows rebooting, whatever it is, it frustrates > > the hell out of me. > > > > The one time that I installed MythTV, it worked flawlessly. > > Unfortunately, my tuner cards, ATI TV Wonder 550's don't have linux > > drivers. :( > > > > > > On 4/27/07, Greg Morphis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > So I'm considering building my own PVR from the ground up and wanting > > > some suggestions on the processor, RAM, video card to use, even OS > > > (would XP do it, or should I use Media Center? ), Hard Disk space, > > > should it be in a RAID configuration?), etc. > > > Your help is appreciated. I don't think I'll be playing many games on > > > it, but an occasional game on the 37" LCD TV would be nice. > > > > > > Thanks > > > > > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 Experience Flex 2 & MX7 integration & create powerful cross-platform RIAs http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJQ Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:233448 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
