I have had MythTV on an old Athlon 700 MHz since summer. I like it, but wouldn't recommend it for everybody. The cost breakdown:
$100 --- Hauppauge pvr-250
$90 --- 160 Gig HD
$10 --- 10' keyboard cord for across the room viewing
I watch from the monitor, which isn't much smaller than my TV.
I found the software setup lengthy, and slightly difficult, but I think of this as hobby time. It is probably easier to build a stand-alone system from scratch than to add MythTV to an existing machine that you wish to preserve.
My biggest complaints are with the TV listing procedure. XMLTV or the site it grabs from changes formats, and MythTV croaks.
My machine's kt133 chipset causes hardware problems. Granted, this isn't really the fault of Myth/Hauppauge but it's the only time the problem manifests itself. When the bus gets overloaded, Myth gives an error and stops recording. Nothing is more frustrating than watching the first 12 minutes of the Daily Show, then discovering you don't have the rest. Fortunately, this happens infrequently, and I gather that the pvr-250/MythTV setup plays nicer with other motherboards.
I don't run myth on the machine all the time, and it takes a little time to start up. If I just want to watch some tube, I often just flip on the regular old TV, commercials and all. Seems like it kind of defeats the whole purpose.
On the other hand, it is really great to be able to watch shows whenever I want. (I would never be able to get my act together enough to actually set the vcr.)
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Although it is Uranus-sized, it is close to the star, and so it may not be similar.
ESO press release: http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-2 2-04.html
$100 --- Hauppauge pvr-250
$90 --- 160 Gig HD
$10 --- 10' keyboard cord for across the room viewing
I watch from the monitor, which isn't much smaller than my TV.
I found the software setup lengthy, and slightly difficult, but I think of this as hobby time. It is probably easier to build a stand-alone system from scratch than to add MythTV to an existing machine that you wish to preserve.
My biggest complaints are with the TV listing procedure. XMLTV or the site it grabs from changes formats, and MythTV croaks.
My machine's kt133 chipset causes hardware problems. Granted, this isn't really the fault of Myth/Hauppauge but it's the only time the problem manifests itself. When the bus gets overloaded, Myth gives an error and stops recording. Nothing is more frustrating than watching the first 12 minutes of the Daily Show, then discovering you don't have the rest. Fortunately, this happens infrequently, and I gather that the pvr-250/MythTV setup plays nicer with other motherboards.
I don't run myth on the machine all the time, and it takes a little time to start up. If I just want to watch some tube, I often just flip on the regular old TV, commercials and all. Seems like it kind of defeats the whole purpose.
On the other hand, it is really great to be able to watch shows whenever I want. (I would never be able to get my act together enough to actually set the vcr.)