My current setup is as follows

A 1.1 celeron acting as both front and backend running 30.1, containing;

1. Aver 771 DVB-T card
2. Nova-T DVB card
3. Nvidia 64mb
4. 768 ram
4. 11 gb hd
5. 61 gb hg

I am using the TV-Out of the Nvidia card, and the remote control of the Nova card.

The box is just not stable at all. If I try to record and view another channel at the same time, it shudders and then freezes.

Some channels are not viewable in live mode at all because of all the shuddering and freezing. The only way I can watch programs on these channels is to record them, and then watch them back later.

I have both DVB cards setup for hardware encoding - and the nvidia card is running the XF86Config nvidia sample (with tweaks for region, and composite).

I dont know if I can get any more juice out of this box. Sadly, I am poorer than a church mouse with a large overdraft, so upgrading it is not an option

It is not all doom and gloom. I have another machine - which is currently running Ubuntu. The specs for that machine are...

1. P4 running at around 2.6
2. 512 ram

I was thinking about moving both DVB cards into the Ubuntu machine, as well as the 60gb hd and then running that as a backend, with the frontend only containing the Nvidia card, and the 11 gb hd (for the ring buffer.)

But will this make any difference? As I understand it the frontend did most of the work? and well, if both DVB cards are using hardware encoding, then will removing them make much difference?

all advice very much appreciated.

thanks,

john

Can you just ditch the 1.1 machine and have the front & backend on the P4?

If I did that though, it would mean leaving knoppmyth

It would also mean moving the P4 into the front room, whilst its monitor is still in the office. Could I use 1.1 connected up to the monitor in the office as a terminal services type box?

And would I still be able to use the P4 whilst TV is being watched/recorded? I guess so, but I have not tried it.

thanks for your reply!!

Have you run memtest on the flakey machine? stability issues can be caused by memory problems.

I don't know the DVB cards you have, but are you sure they have Hardware MPEG2 codecs, becuase if they didn't this machine is well under powered for a frontend.

I have a P4 2.53GHz with two DVB-T cards and when I do PiP the little screen is slightly jerky.

I would also support the suggestion of Greg in regards to running Memtest on your computer, you can get it from http://www.memtest86.com/

You may also wish to check whether your drives are using DMA transfers, as the 11GB drive may not be fast enough. Check the settings of drive with where hda is the respective hard drive.

Just some random thoughts to try and help you out.

_________________
Girkers

thanks for the replies guys - memtest is running.

I am not actually sure both cards do have hardware mpeg2 codecs. I thought they did, but now not so sure.... I am looking around for tech specs for them now.

I think I might have seriously under rated just how much power a frontend needs. All I could really do it chuck in another 512 ram, but I dont know how much that will make a difference.

I'll report back on those cards - if and when I find the information

well that is a no to the Aver 771 ....



http://www.dtvforum.info/lofiversion/index.php/t9457.html

This dude seems to think it is: http://www.maysubdivide.org/



But I have not been able to find any confirmation of this elsewhere.

The card doesnt need an encoder because it receives DVB which is already encoded in MPEG2 format. I doubt it has a decoder, and myth would not use it if it did.

So, set 'Hardware Encoding' on or not?

On my machine neither of my Nova-T cards have hardware encoding set 'on' as I didn't think they had hardware to decode.... (See Greg Frost's post)