Hello,

As the subject says I am completely new to Linux. In fact I dont even regularly use Linux software. Mostly just install things and as long as they are the Widnows interface style I get by. I love the Knoppix CD that runs on the CD alone.

I have a computer ( a small P41.5 ghz ) that I use to run a Dvico Fusion HDTV card. It works okay and records and plays under Windows XP. I would, however, like to escape this system as I am sure it uses lots of resources that slow things down.
It also is inconsistent in stability .

The major concern is its ability to encode things through the Line in Svideo input It stutters and jumps and misses lots of frames. Consequently the production of MPEG2 files is less than perfect.

I have researched the following information.

http://www.users.on.net/~jani/dvico-mythtv.html

http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~chrisp/Linux-DVB/DVICO/

http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php#hw

http://www.byopvr.com/

Okay , to cut a longer story short. Can I trouble you for a response to two questions ?

First , will I be able to see significant perfomance gains from ridding myself of XP and adopting Linux ?

And secondly, is the instalation, compiling and configuring of Linux as daunting as it seems in the previously listed web places ? It seems really difficult. For example I dont think I'd know where to start with this .,.......

case "$1" in
start)
HAS_CX88=`/sbin/lspci -n | fgrep 14f1:8802`
HAS_BT878=`/sbin/lspci -n | fgrep 109e:0878`
echo -n -e "Inserting DVICO modules into kernel: "
cd ${BUILDDIR}/video4linux
/sbin/insmod ./video-buf.ko
/sbin/insmod ./btcx-risc.ko
# /sbin/modprobe i2c-core
/sbin/insmod ./v4l2-common.ko
/sbin/insmod ./v4l1-compat.ko

I have Mandrake 10 installed on the same computer but it cant recognise the Dvico card

Greg Frost said I should run a script, but I have no clue how to do this


Thanks for your time if you got this far. You see, I am an ex-DOS nut who couldnt see the point of windows until I learnt how to be lazy and now need the sound effects to alert me to some error.
Regards

Stuart

I have not used the svideo input so I'm not sure about that or even whether it works (if it does work, i doubt whether it would produce mpeg2. more likely just a frame grabber), but a p4 1.5 should be capable of doing standard def digital TV no problems.



Yes. Which is why KnoppMyth exists. It is there to make it all painless for you. Much of the configuration described in those guides is all done automatically.

The next release of KnoppMyth will have a kernel version that is new enough for the DVICO to work out of the box, so you may be best to wait until that is released (and don't ask when. It will be released when it is done).

Hi,
If you have a spare drive, 10 gig or greater in size then I would suggest going ahead and try the R5A16. It would be a way of "test driving" the whole concept and see if it is what you might like to use.

Most everything that you will learn along the way will most certainly apply to the next release also. That way you don't have to wait for an indefinet period of time and would not be starting cold turkey when R5A?? is released.

Oh, as an after thought, be sure to do a backup once you have the settings. That way when it is time for a re-do or for the latest upgrade, those settings will be retained and automaticlly reloaded

If you can handle dos, this will be a cakewalk.
Mike