At 05:23 PM 2/12/2005, you wrote:
>Y'all,
>
>I'm considering getting into MythTV. Rather than RTFM (boring), I'd like to
>ask a few newbie questions here (way more fun):

Watch out.  If you play newbie, you'll get newbie answers....


>To what extent is HDTV supported? What cards are recommended, and can I still
>record plain old NTSC with them?
>
>Will the cards work in conjunction with a digital or analog cable box, or in
>place of one?

Non-HD -- ok if you hook it to the analog side of either cable box.  Make 
sure you get a card that (1) is supported by MythTV and that (2) does 
encoding in hardware.  The Hauppauge PVR-250 is a good standard and is 
probably supported by MythTV.  Be sure to get version 16 of the card, not 
version 15 -- ebay has had a bunch of the older cards

HD -- nope.  There is not a standard for HD broadcast with cable.  Contact 
your local cable operator to see if they offer a card and then see if it is 
supported.  Cox offers a DVR, but I dont' know if it does HD or not.


>How fast a machine do I need? How much RAM, what kind of video card (ATI /
>NVidia / onboard VIA) do I need?

Be sure you card does encoding in hardware.  Software decoding is 
ok.  Hardware encoding is an absolute necessity if you want more than one 
tv card.

I can't comment on which video you need, other than s-video out is needed, 
as my HTPC (www.terrystockdale.com/htpc) runs on the OS from the BSOD Empire.


>What are the chances of a pre-broadcast flag card being strategically
>obsoleted by Big Brother later on?

100%

>...
>Joey Kelly
>< Minister of the Gospel | Linux Consultant >
>http://joeykelly.net
>GPG key fingerprint = 8F11 D859 81A6 DE8C 5429  4A07 7146 1AFD 5C41 161E

--
Terry Stockdale -- Baton Rouge, LA
Check out my computer tips, coffee pages and forums at
         http://www.terrystockdale.com  

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