I have a spare rig lying around that I used to teach myself linux (ubuntu), and now am going to try and convert into a HTPC on a budget. My goal is to get it to be able to record 720P HDTV through QAM with as little as possible. Just wanted to see if you think it is possible to get it up to snuff using the current cpu/mobo.

Here are the stats as it is now:

P4 2.4 Ghz (prescott)
1GB of RAM DDR333
plenty of HD storage.

*** it has no AGP or PCIe slot for a graphics card it only has 3 PCI slots, so real estate is at a premium and everything will be running on the PCI bus ***

So I gather I will need:
-PCI gfx card, capable of outputting 1280 X 720 native, with DVI out and possibly capable of doing encoding/decoding if necessary?
-DVI to HDMI cable
-PCI tuner/capture card must have QAM. mpeg2... maybe mpeg4? HDHomerun worth it to save a PCI slot?
-Maybe the ability to add in a BlueRay Disc Player in the future
-possibly a sound card suggestions?
-wireless mouse / kb
- some kind of IR set up

I'm a little bit worried about running the capture card, gfx card and sound card all on the PCI bus. Will this cause problems even if I only doing recording or watching at one time? thoughts?

I think the rig will handle 720p, with the PCI video the only wild card. IMO, it should be able to play 720p.

Just throw in a FX5200 like
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GF-FX5200-PCI-128&cat=VCD

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GF-FX5200-PCI-256&cat=VCD

As for audio, try
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829118103

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829111001

For QAM/ATSC/NTSC tuner in Myth, I just bought the Pinnacle PCI card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815144018

which appears to work in Myth fine, according to a quick Google search in other forums, though I haven't try mine yet.

Recording QAm/ATSC is very low CPU and bandwidth, so there shouldn't be any PCI bandwidth issue there. Audio is also low bandwidth, so most of your PCI bus should be available for the video playback.

For QAM/ATSC/NTSC tuner in Myth, I just bought the Pinnacle PCI card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815144018


WOW! those are some really bad reviews on newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16815144018) for that card. The complaints could all be xp/vista related though.

Here's a list of cards that work (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Video_capture_card#Cards_that_work) for myth.

I personally think a PCI vid card will be a problem... I don't think the bus has the proper bandwidth for HD....

I bet the card isn't a problem...Can't guarantee but I think it'll be ok. The real question will be since it's a shared bus and the capture card is on the same one, if you'll have the bandwidth.. I doubt you'll find a PCI card that has any offload capabilities. The 2.4GHz P4 should be ok to do all the scaling and decoding on the CPU though.
-Trouble

WOW! those are some really bad reviews on newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16815144018) for that card. The complaints could all be xp/vista related though.

Here's a list of cards that work (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Video_capture_card#Cards_that_work) for myth.

All the reviews were re: Windows app and drivers- nothing to do with the hardware card or use in Linux.

There is a good thread on this card at ubuntuforums.com, and it appears it functions and receives well in Myth.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=602039

http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=1610405

The reasons I chose the Pinnacle- uses a recent vintage QAm/ATSC receiver/tuner chip, Pinnacle has been making tuner cards (NTSC at least) for a long time, the price is good for the capabilities of the hardware (QAM, ATSC, NTSC, Svideo/composite inputs) and the card can be had for $70 or less with coupons/price matching at a local store like CC or BB- easy to return if defective or doesn't work for you.

So If I want to be safe I could move the tuner card to another bus by selecting a HDHomerun unit to offload that data stream over to the network card and whatever bus that handles that no?

or maybe USB? or are these more pain than their worth?

So If I want to be safe I could move the tuner card to another bus by selecting a HDHomerun unit to offload that data stream over to the network card and whatever bus that handles that no?

or maybe USB? or are these more pain than their worth?

At most, an ATSC or QAM stream recording to hard disk will be only 19Mbps, a small fraction of the PCI bandwidth. There should be no issue recording an ATSC or QAm HD stream to hard disk while doing anything else.

But the Homerun is a good choice if you want to spare a PCI slot and/or want 2x HD tuners. I also have an HD Homerun on my network ;)

Sounds like it may be beneficial to pick up a used motherboard on the cheap that has an AGP slot...

I know you're on a budget and all, but please don't waste your money on an AGP board!! If you have some patience, you can build a contemporary system in as little as 3 months. For example, Month 1: motherboard w/ integrated VGA; month 2: CPU; month 3: RAM. This is less than $100 per month for a very short time.

Well if I did that route I'd need a board that had DVI/HDMI out, and might as well get integrated SPDIF out as well... may be more cost effective will research that also...

I came up with this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127036

It'll take a phenom after a bios update, also. (just sayin' :))

get the hdhomerun for tuner

I'm leaning towards a 780G chipset board and a low power proc. like a 4850e, therefore I can justify price with lower power consumption ;)

I was reading up that the drivers for 780G boards had some quirks at first, anyone running a 780G board on the new Ubuntu distro?