New HTPC Build for mythtv

a_p · Post by **a_p** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 2:06 pm

I am building a mythtv frontend/backend - mostly for watching movies and tv from the hdd, no pvr yet.

Please critique my choices and offer any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Antec FUSION
Abit NF-M2 nview
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+(65W)
Corsair 2x2048-5400C4
XFX GeForce 7600GS (I bought this already)
SAMSUNG 18X DVDÂ±R DVD Burner SATA Model SH-S183L
Thermalright SI/XP-120 or Silverstone NT01 v2.0

If I missed anything, let me know.

The video card was purchased for less than $50. I prefer the abit motherboard over the ASUS M2NPV-VM (optical audio built in) even though I love my current ASUS motherboard. I want 2gb of ram just in case I give in to Windows VISTA, but let me know what you think.

My biggest questions are the dvdr and the cpu cooler.

Thanks again

jimmyfergus · Post by **jimmyfergus** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:32 am

This is close to my plans...

I think you could use the cheap Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 on this setup to good effect, especially if you undervolt. Mobo has the 4 pin fan header, so a fan like the Alpine 7's can be controlled well by BIOS (I think!). Is this an HDTV setup? If not, the proc is well over requirement (but they're only $135, so who cares).

On the post for that mobo, someone mentioned the DVD drive isn't quiet, but if you don't watch DVDs directly...

For Mythtv, you won't get any real benefit from lots of memory. Streaming video has no business staying in memory, just streams from disk, via modest buffering, to the output, so 512Mb would be more than enough. Given you've 4 slots on the mobo, why not hold off and purchase if necessary later?

By the way, I'd really recommend Knoppmyth - it's so painless! You can be up and running in under an hour. It's Debian based, so it's easy to add additional apps later.

HDD? Remote?

a_p · Post by **a_p** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:30 pm

Thanks for the ideas.

The hard drive is a WD 500GB (I already have one). I currently have a Harmony 880 remote, so I guess I need to add an ir receiver to the HTPC. Any suggestions?

I also think it might be possible to use my ds lite as a remote desktop (thought I saw that somewhere) for other tasks.

About the Artic Cooling cpu cooler: would you use that with 2 case fans or just 1?

Any ideas yea or nea for running mythtv on ubuntu?

Thanks again

jimmyfergus · Post by **jimmyfergus** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:55 pm

Don't know about the harmony remote, but many are supported - IR receiver might be more awkward. There are homebrew ones you can build. It could even be worth buying some cheap remote just to use its IR receiver.

I haven't actually built this machine, but I was thinking 2 case fans (NSK2400) would be worth it for me for peace of mind to keep the HD cool, and therefore have it last longer. I think both cores running full whack might make the Alpine 7 quite warm, but I'm planning to undervolt if/when I build this, and a PVR rarely runs full tilt and it's silence on idle I most care about.

I have no experience with MythTV on Ubuntu, but I think there's been quite active work on it. For me, KnoppMyth is good because it's a trivial install and focused on MythTV. My view may be colored by the fact I've been using it for 2 years or so.

Why no TV card? No signal? PVR makes TV bearable again. HDTV is quite possible with this spec, broadcast over the air in many places.

Arvo · Post by **Arvo** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:34 pm

I would avoid Samsung optical drives, if possible. If working, they are good - but they tend to broke more often than some other burners (esp Nec ones - I've yet to hear problems with these).

And I'd avoid LG drives too - many (if not all) models do not allow decrease reading speed for audio CDs or DVDs, what is almost requirement for HTPC systems (on nominal speed all drives are noisy). Well, maybe some later models are different - needs to google a bit.

About memory - I'd go with 1GB faster memory (eg 6400C4) instead on 2GB of slower one. But this is just personal opinion, I haven't used *nix based systems extensively and cannot argue about their memory needs.

quielb · Post by **quielb** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:54 pm

As far as the remote goes: The harmony 880 is a good choice. But I would change the case to a NSK2400. Its the same case as the fusion but without the VFD. Then I would get the IMON VFD/IR receiver and put it in the 5 1/4" bay. It then basically becomes a fusion, but it adds the IR receiver you need. Then you can tell your harmony to use tivo codes.

Knoppmyth is a good distro, but I prefer mythdora. Its the same idea. Its a complete distro with os/mythtv pre-done for you. Mythdora is built on Fedora Core 5. There is a little more community support/documentation for MythTV on Fedora then there is on Debian. Just makes it a bit easier to find solutions when you are having problems.

Just my 2 cents.

a_p · Post by **a_p** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 5:10 pm

Thanks for the suggestions quielb. One more question though. How does the imon match the nsk2400 in terms of color, do the silvers mesh well?

jimmyfergus · Post by **jimmyfergus** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:50 am

A data point on memory - rrdtool is installed with Knoppmyth (though making it function required a slight tweak), which gives me a graph of memory usage. Mine consistently seems to stay at just over 256Mb, while also running Slimserver (which uses a fair bit of memory). So if you do stick with KnoppMyth, anything from 256 up will be just fine.

a_p · Post by **a_p** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:27 am

That's interesting, but I am also thinking of having azureus running in the background. With the couple of plugins I use with azureus, XP shows memory usage at ~50,000mb (quite a lot actually). On the system in my signature this causes no slowdowns, but I am running 2gb of memory there. That is my only concern.

Thanks

quielb · Post by **quielb** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:38 am

I don't know how the silvers will match I haven't put those two exact components together. Nothing a can of spray paint can't fix. Its easy to repaint that bezel on the IMON

jimmyfergus · Post by **jimmyfergus** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:08 am

a_p wrote:That's interesting, but I am also thinking of having azureus running in the background.

Ditto once again. I ran Azureus on a previous installation, but I got worried about security. My Azureus crashed in odd ways, and the machine became unstable shortly afterwards. I don't know if the two were connected.

A good setup is to run VMWare and have a virtual machine running Azureus where it can't do much harm. It's nice to be able to keep your PVR machine quite wide open within your home network, and keep externally visible servers somewhat quarantined. That's an argument for lots of memory! Though I think 1Mb would be fine for KnoppMyth + Azureus VM.

Within my KnoppMyth, I have an Ubuntu web/mail server running in a virtual machine (though not with the 256Mb memory used I reported! It uses more, but still fits fine into 512Mb). I just installed a new KnoppMyth and am in the process of moving the VM back to it. The virtualization is superb for that, because during the upgrade I just moved the VM to my desktop machine, and now I'm moving it back. Talk about silence - my web server contributes no additional noise pollution at all

.

Here's the wiki page where I put the instructions for installing VMWare Server under KnoppMyth. In the latest KnoppMyth (R5E50) there were some hurdles... KnoppMyth uses a custom kernel.

jimmyfergus · Post by **jimmyfergus** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:25 am

a_p: did you build it? I just did, and am pretty happy. The Alpine 7 seems to work very well.

I completely went against my own advice on memory, and kind of regret it as a waste. Got 2GB, and most of it is unused. Haven't set up an Azureus VM yet though.

Mine seems to be 100% myth compatible, though I haven't got the mobo sensors working properly yet. There are also discussions on the Knoppmyth forums about improvements with getting the latest Nvidia drivers and other tweaks, so while it works fine, it could be better.

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:51 am

jimmyfergus wrote:I completely went against my own advice on memory, and kind of regret it as a waste. Got 2GB, and most of it is unused.

I run a mythtv frontend + backend on a box with 1GB memory and no hard-drive (and, therefore, no swap partition). Myth crashes every once in a while complaining about being unable to allocate memory. So I think that there are circumstances under which the system as a whole likes to use more than 1GB of memory.

a_p · Post by **a_p** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:41 am

I haven't built it yet jimmyfergus. I was trying to decide on which flavor of linux to try. I am thinking of going with Mythdora. I also likedyour idea of the vmware appliances.

Is there an Azureus appliance already set up for download or are you making your own? Also, what does your web/email server actually do? Is it more than just firefox and an email client, I'm a little naive on that point.

For anyone else out there. I haven't decided on a tuner card - any recommendations. Also, does anyone have experience puting an IR receiver into their case (Fusion or other)? I don't know if I'll get a tuner card just yet, I only get OTA broadcasts, but I would still like to use my Harmony 880 to control myth when watching movies and shows on my hard drive. Suggestions please.

Thanks

jimmyfergus · Post by **jimmyfergus** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:58 am

If you have patience (I didn't), it might be worth waiting to see how the 65nm X2s pan out.

I'm more familiar with Debian than Red Hat, so Knoppmyth is good for me. It has a decent wiki and forum community, so solutions are pretty easy to find.

I don't know that there's an Azureus appliance set up, but I'd just install an empty server appliance (probably the Ubuntu server one I already use), and then run 'apt-get install azureus', should work out the dependencies and get me everything I need. Ideally I'd run Azureus 'headless', without any display, but that hasn't worked well when I've tried it in the past.

As for the mail/web server - it's actually hosting a mail and web site, as I have my own domain. Most people wouldn't have a use of that - I'm not sure I really do either

.

Tuner: While I'd prefer to avoid having another box (modem, router, another!?), the Hdhomerun tuner has great reports with Mythtv and I might use it. It connects via the network, has dual tuners which can get OTA and/or QAM HD, and includes a IR remote sensor (again, supported by MythTv I think). I'm leaning towards getting that. What I'd really like is a dual-tuner QAM/OTA PCI-express card. Doesn't seem to exist.

Whatever I do, now I've seen the HD QAM broadcasts, I need HD recording abilities

... I think it's tough to record HD for anything other than the free channels, as they usually arrive encrypted - not an issue for me, as I'm too cheap to pay the cable company for them anyway.

a_p · Post by **a_p** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:19 am

Oh yeah,

I already received my parts this last week.

Fusion
Abit NF-M2 nView
Corsair XMS 667 c4
AM2 X2 3800 (65W)
SI-128
XFX 7600gs
WD 500 sata
LG DVD RL(very good reviews online, very good price)

I have no prior knowledge with any sort of linux, I picked Mythdora due to a very thorough install guide I found. Thanks jimmyfergus for the ubunto server with azureus idea (should I put firefox on there as well). Any ideas about security (antivirus etc.) for myth and linux (what and how to would be great).

I was looking at the hdhomerun as well. I like the integrated IR receiver and the OTA HD tuner, but I too am hung up on the idea of another box cluttering up my livingroom.

jimmyfergus · Post by **jimmyfergus** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:35 am

Best of luck with MythDora - let me know how you get along.

I am very comfortable in Linux/Unix, and can't quite imagine what it would be like starting out. Although Knoppmyth these days just installs in about 30 mins, without major issues, every now and then something isn't quite right, and I'm very glad I'm able to dig in and have some idea what's going on...

Only now do I realise that I'm in for a big headache if I want my display to use the full 1366x768 display like a monitor.

I see it as a kind of hobby - and I often wonder if I'd have a better time if I just gave up and used MS MCE or something.

Perhaps I'll get Azureus to run headless, and then set up a VM appliance with its HTTP interface and share it... Not for a while.