[ale] linux PVR raises questions

[Byron A Jeff]

> 
> hey im starting work on a linux pvr and wanted to get the input of the
> group. i was hoping to get software that would allow me to pause and
> resume and also to archive in a more compact format recorded shows. 

As you've already seen, that mythtv and freevo are two popular alternatives.
I'm not sure about the pause/resume situation. My current setup is used
always for timeshifting.

> this
> is going to be a plain box, basically nic, big hd and mb was all i was
> thinking.

Then there is of course the capture issue. There are two basic camps: the
let the CPU capture raw video from the tuner a la BT848/BT878, and the
let the hardware capture/compress/playback and relegate the CPU to the
storage task a la Zoran based card or the Happauge PVR 250/350

> i would need video/audio in/out just a basic box that could
> transfer the media to my pc at a later time if i wanted :-p where i could
> then burn a cd or such. any good sites suggestions? experience? i seen
> this http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/epia-m10000.html
> and thought it might be fun to play with. at 1ghz you think it would run a
> pvr nicely? 

Well it depends. The big knock on Via is the fact that they haven't realized
a useful policy on thier hardware MPEG decoder. Plus it's only 1 Ghz.

Anyway my current setup:

AMD K6 400 Mhz
Zoran based Iomega BUZ MJPEG capture/playback card
STB Velocity 4400 NVidia w/ TVout
WD 200 GB disk
Homemade record/playback scripts

BAJ
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