With an older system, you really need a hardware card to be able to do live TV. The good news is that with a hardware card like the PVR 250 or 150, anything down to a P3 700 (possibly less) is capable. My first Myth box was a P3 700 with a PVR 250, and while live TV stuttered every few seconds, it was definitely watchable. Viewing recordings was no problem at all, even when the PVR 250 was recording a new program.
Even with a bt878 card, you buddy can probably record, though I'm skeptical about recording 2 streams simultaneously or watching one recording while a new program is being recorded. Fortunately PVR 150s are only around $100 -- a lot less than a new CPU. Once your pal gets hooked on Myth, that 150 will pop right out of the Dell and into whatever hardware he buys to replace it. _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list [email protected] http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
