Been a while since I reported on progress with my PVR setup. That's mostly because I've been beating my head against the wall instead of making any real progress. In summary, ivtv cvs-latest and latest mythtv cvs just aren't happy here... there are persistent problems with choppy audio and video and lots of prebuffering pauses no matter what hardware combinations I try. So, I decided it was time to put all the complex plans aside and put a simple config together for the family room.
So, I downloaded a KnoppMyth r4 CD and used it to get a reasonably simple single-box MythTV setup running. The only real problems I had making this work were the need to update to a fresher xmltv package, and the fact that I somehow got some program guide info loaded with the wrong timezone the first time.
Extras I loaded include the latest SiS driver and sisctrl from Thomas Winischhofer, and a Perl script that handles channel changing duties on the Sony DirecTV receiver with a simple RS-232 cable from ttyS0.
The hardware is my Micro ATX system, with the following bits and pieces:
Athenatech Micro ATX Case w/200W Supply, A100BB.
Asus A7N266-VM motherboard.
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512Mb PC-2100 DDR266 RAM
80Gb Maxtor
ECS AG315P/TV video card
The PVR-250 gets S-Video and stereo audio from my old Sony DirecTV receiver, and I'm feeding composite NTSC from the video card and analog stereo audio from the motherboard to one of the inputs on the A/V receiver. Some tweaking of the video output using sisctrl and I think the family will be happy while I get on with trying to make things like my pchdtv card and a more complex frontend/backend structure for the house work.
It feels good having something the family can start using. KnoppMyth
definitely gets a "stuff that works" rating here. Try it if you want to
see what MythTV is all about with minimal pain... 