The actual install of KnoppMyth went pretty smoothly. I use the Systm Episode 2 video as an overview for the basic configuration. The only thing they didn’t cover was the Myth setup for the PVR-500 card. The trick (as documented here) was to configure each of it’s tuners as a separate video device (ie: /dev/video0, /dev/video1) with both using Tuner 0.
Category: projects
Things I do in my copious free time
Bulding a PVR: Dremel time!
The PVR-500 card contains dual tuners and that makes it longer than a 1/2 PCI card length. It ends up being just a little more than 1 cm longer than the PCI card cage used in the Dell.
I pulled the cage of the riser card and tried the PVR-500 in the Dell with the case closed. If you squint you can see that the card just fits. It’s a tight squeeze. The power connector for the hard drive is just touching the edge of the card:
To get the card to fit, I had to remove a chunk of the metal card cage.
Card cage before:
Card cage after:
And with the PVR-500 installed:
Bulding a PVR: All the parts are here.
Bits and pieces have been trickling in for the past couple of weeks and I’m ready to start playing.
Hey! Why is it I can get next day delivery from Texas, but I order something from Mississauga and it takes nearly 2 weeks to arrive?
Anyway, here’s the PC:
The PVR 350 and 500 cards:
Big-honk’n-hard-drive, dvd burner, and ram:
Building a PVR
Inspired by Make, I’ve decided to get my hands dirty again by building a PVR (personal video recorder) for fun. Tivo’s aren’t available in Canada and any of the commercial units are just a tad too "closed" for my liking.
I’m going with MythTV as the core application running on Linux (there is a decent overview of MythTV here). The distro I’ve chosen is the very slick KnoppMyth. It looks like it is definitely the quickest way to get to the end result without having to spend a lot of time hacking Linux (which I have done in the past and would prefer not to have to do again).
Gaining access to Canadian TV listings was a little bit of a concern initially but it looks like MythTV works with a feed from Zap2it Labs.
I downloaded the latest version of KnoppMyth a couple of days ago and the Hauppauge PVR-350 and PVR-500 cards arrived this morning.
The PC I chose is an off-lease Dell GXF240 (P4 1.7 – small desktop). I liked the form-factor, but the card cage may be a little small for the cards (at least the PVR-500). I’m hoping I can get them to fit, but think I’m going to have to do some Dremel work. It was only a couple of hundred bucks, so I don’t mind experimenting.
The 300GB hard drive, DVD burner, and PC should be arriving shortly. Then it’ll be time to get to work.