I am thinking about jumping in and building a new KnoppMyth system -- from scratch. I've done my best to draw a rough schematic, which you can find at the following URL.

http://www.directedmotion.com/mythspec.png

My questions:
- Does the MSI FX5600 that I spec'd for the video out have sufficient RAM onboard for playback of the recorded HD material (which I should receive to the 2 pcHDTV cards as OTA)?

- Is 512MB RAM enough to have the system perform? I can always add more later, but if this isn't even enough to *start* I would like to know...

- Same question re: 160GB of HD space. Anyone thnk I need to go higher, in order to get a system that has enough headroom to handle an average week's recording schedule? (About 18 hours of programs).

- Remote? I could use some info regarding what remotes people use when building a Myth system and how they integrate into the sytem. (This is one subject I *haven't* yet searched the forum archives for, and will do so after I post this message...)

- Case recommendations: I've spec'd a small case, requiring a MicroATX motherboard. Small is what I will want -- it should look like any other item in my entertainment center. But, I've never bought a case before. Positive reports on small cases (and where they were bought) are welcome.

- This is a US system. Anyone think I've found pricing that's too high for any given component?

Thanks!

Specs look good. Do you have that many HDTV channels in your area to warrant 2 cards(if so lucky you)? You could probably save money on the video card as I think what you're getting is probably overkill, an MX-440 should suffice. You can ask the folks on the pcHDTV forum for a second opinion.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

I have 10 channels in my area broadcasting OTA HD. One is PBS, sending out a "subchannel", so that bumps it to 11. (Shades of Spinal Tap: "These go to 11...")

The latest "Oh, what if..." thought that's occured to me is:
In the future, I will probably replace the TV with an LCD monitor, with DVI input. If that happens, I will have to send the HTPC video output directly to the monitor -- which is fine. The problem arises when I consider how to feed VHS video to same. 19" LCD monitors I've seen don't offer S-video inputs, and certainly not RCA composite inputs. So, how's a guy with "legacy" videos supposed to watch 'em? And how do I switch between the HTPC and the VCR at the monitor?

As long as there are video sources to switch between, I'd like to continue to do so in the receiver.
http://www.directedmotion.com/dvi_vcr.png

My receiver does not offer DVI in/out -- only Y Pr Pb. As you can see in the above diagram, I envision needing a few convertors to pull everything together. I imagine convertors 1 & 2 could be the same model, assuming that model permits pass-thru in either direction. Convertor 3 would be a different animal. And I wonder if such convertors exist. Anyone?

Recommendations welcome!

You component specs and cost are way high. Also, with all this hardware in a MicroATX case you're going to have to worry about thermal issues and fan noise.

You could easily cut you mother board and CPU costs in half by going with an Athalon XP +2500 (or lower) and an appropriate MoBo. call it ~$70 for each.

You should be able to get a DVD +/-RW for under $120 without looking all that hard. Heck New Egg has an 8x NEC on sale for $80 this weekend...

The video card is screaming overkill even for HDTV. If you think about it all you're really doing is 2D graphics at low to moderate resolution and frame rate. The GeForce4 built into my MoBo does everything necessary without breaking a sweat, heck it'd even do MPEG2 decoding if I let it. HDTV just shouldn't be that much more demanding. For under $50 you can get all the outputs you want (S-Video, DVI, ...) on a card that's more than capable enough to drive two screens at video frame rates, with transparent overlays, P in P and the whole nine yards. Oh and it'll run cooler too.

The RAM and HD should be fine.

I put a box PVR-250 based box together for under $700, including ~$50 for a wireless keyboard, and ~$20 for miscellaneous cables. Even adding a second (200Gb) HD didn't take it over $800. With the benefit of hindsight I could probably have gotten that price down below $600 and still have a substantially over spec'ed machine. The only big additional cost you face is 2 HDTV cards, call that an additional $300 for a total of roughly $900... so there's about $400 of fat in your estimate.

Thanks to both of you!

I couldn't find GeForce onboard, but found this:

ASUS A7N8X-X NVIDIA nFORCE2 ULTRA 400 CHIPSET ULTRA ATA133 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xAGP(8X)/5xPCI/3xDDR W/ LAN USB 2.0 & AUDIO

'Look okay to you?

Also, what kind of cases are you using?

Your comments have been quite helpful. Again, thanks!

The nVidia Ultra 400 chipset doesn't have integrated video. Also, you're still thinking "hot gaming/workstation" when you should be thinking "appliance". A 333Mhz FSB will be plenty fast, even 266 would be fine.

GeForce4 is built into the nForce2 IGP chipsets (Integrated Graphics Processor?). Searching New Eggs motherboards pages for CPU Socket Type [Socket A (Socket 462)] System Chipset [NVIDIA nForce2 IGP] returns 9 results from $64 to $88 at least 3 of which mention TV-Out (s-video and/or composite) capability. Mine is driving the TV just fine via it's s-video output, but if you want to use a DVI connection later you'll need to go with a seperate video card, at which point another MoBo chipset should work just as well (you may want to avoid Via however).

A video card with an nVidia chipset on will make it easier to get TV output working. Another search on New Egg shows the less expensive nVidia based cards with DVI starting around about $60, any of which should be plenty powerful. Since we're thinking "appliance", look for a maker with a reputation for reliability and the coolest running cards.

I built my Myth box using a SFF barebones PC with integrated everything (nForce2 IGP + MCP-T, ...), which saved me some steps and part count, but severely limits my flexibility (only 1 PCI slot, ...).

BTW - If you haven't checked New Egg for parts I highly recommend it. Their site makes it very easy to compare parts and ttheir prices and service are both excellent.

Just a quick note before anyone gets confused nvidia cards cannot do mpeg2 hardware decoding. They can do motion compensation in hardware which helps, but that is not complete hardware decoding, and also hdtv decode is tremendously more intensive than what you are doing with the pvr card. as the resolution goes up the processing demands increase exponentially. However a gf4mx or newer should handle it just as well as as anything else cause all of that processing is done on the main processor (other than the motion compensation) unless you have a mpeg2 full hardware decoder like the pvr350 (not good for hdtv, cause only svid out) or the via epia chipsets (not a good open source driver yet).

Yes, I misspoke on the decoding I should have said "help with". The point was that the video card just wasn't working that hard, and that for this application you don't need one that would give the FPS gamers a woodie.

Also, although decoding HDTV is far more demanding than NTSC, while watching recordings my CPU hovers around 96% idle, and while watching live TV (where I've been experimenting with 720x480 and 6000-9000 kbps capture rates there) it's still around %80 idle...

So what your saying is that you are going top be using a pc display as your television set and this is the reason you need a way to connect the vcr?

Hidef televisons and monitors both have 'legacy' ports rca and svideo for backwards compatibility... you should be fine if you buy a monitor as you will be using the pcHDTV card for the tuning.