wonkablog

I know I always get in trouble for saying I’m going to be working on something soon and then never getting around to it, but I’m pretty certain about this one (again). I want to start working on getting my pcHDTV 5500 card working again.

This time, things are going to be a bit more on my side. When I last tried it, the 2.6.18 kernel was new and I was pretty much in uncharted waters it seemed like. Now that there’s some kernel sources in the tree along with new linux-headers, I probably won’t be the only one trying this stuff out. There’s nothing like sitting back and letting someone else figure out the work for you.

Anyway, I have this miniature dream of setting up my HDTV card correctly, and hopefully getting enough channels that I can ditch Comcast altogether. Not that I have anything against them, it’s just that I’m on the limited basic cable plan, and all I get are the local channels anyway. If I could find myself a good, decent outside antenna and hook it up, I could probably get pretty good reception and save myself a little on my monthly bills.

This time though, I’m going to do it right. I’m going to go slowly, do my research, get the right hardware I need, and then take it step by step. Completely opposite approach of what I normally do, I know, but it does work well when I really take things much easier that way. In fact, that’s how I got mythtv and my server setup last time. Just taking it easy.

Plus, I just saw a great article on linux.com that talks about the very same card. It talks about the very basics of getting it up and running, and covers in brief detail what the tools are and what they do. That is exactly what I needed, too. I was just whining to Doug earlier how I couldn’t find a good down to earth howto.

So, we’ll see. I just need to get an antenna and I should be set. I already know that my card works okay, and antenna web says I’m in a good area for reception. I hope it all works out.

Okay, well I’ve decided to try something completely new and different — I’m going to do a lot of research, read up on all the relevant subjects, and then use my mad consumer skillz and make some planned purchases. How freaking boring.

I’ve pretty much already come to the conclusion that nothing short of a slightly beefy computer is going to cut it as a usable mythfrontend. I’m highly skeptical (hence the research part), but I think that a 1ghz mini-itx system might be able to pull it off. Apparently, there are motherboards that have onboard MPEG2 hardware decoding, taking a huge load off of the CPU on playback. I’m pretty skeptical about how easy it is to get those working too, but I’m willing to consider it.

One thing I know that would be a shoo-in replacement is using a Hauppauge PVR 350 which does both hardware MPEG2 encoding and decoding. I know right now you can use it’s S-Video out connection to watch the TV, though I kind of remember reading something about that disappearing soon or X not using it anymore or something. Gah, I really need to read up.