Guys, I was just wanting to get some feedback on my picks for a myth-tv build.
I need to be able to record and play back OTA HDTV @ 1080 I/P and Blue Ray when added. I was looking at the Gigabyte 9600 GT fanless but noticed the new 9800 GT has 112 stream processors...would this 9800 be a good pick.

newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125282

Also, I have chose the following tuner picked:

newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116037

Just wanted some feedback before pulling the trigger.

Thanks

If you're not planning on playing games, I can't see the reason for using a 9800. There are plenty of cheaper cards that will work.

Thanks for the input....I plan on using vdpau for whatever series 9 card I get. What would be the minimum series 9 card that would play HD content without issues?

Again, thanks for you time.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_vdpau_gpu&num=1

Wow, thanks buddy...I had no idea that such minimalistic hardware could be used now. I thought of another question regarding video if you dont mind. My current tv, until I get a hdmi one, has s-video and component inputs...its a 36" sony trinitron. I hear using the component inputs is better then the s-video is there any validity to this? Since you led me to that benchmark I think I already have a nvidia card that will work but it only has dvi output...is there a good dvi to component converter you can recommend?

Thanks again bro!

Sorry, I have no quantifiable data in regards to S Video vs Component. (google is your friend,) but myself I take component over S Video any day. You might want to check and see if your video card already supports component out; most modern video cards do (with a SVHS/VGA to pig-tail cable.)

Some of those 36" Sony sets will accept 480p/1080i over component. Is yours a "high scan" set?

Wow, thanks buddy...I had no idea that such minimalistic hardware could be used now.

You can use even more minimalistic hardware than that, like the Intel Atom + Nvidia ION (http://www.linuxtech.net/features/nvidia_ion_products_overview.html) ...

But in your case I wouldn't recommend that, as you want to record too, I believe (until proven wrong) that the Atom+ION solution is well suited for playback only (mythtv front-end or xbmc).

I don't believe recording by itself uses a lot of CPU (unless you're recording analog and don't have a hardware encoder), but commercial flagging does, as does transcoding recordings.

You can use even more minimalistic hardware than that, like the Intel Atom + Nvidia ION (http://www.linuxtech.net/features/nvidia_ion_products_overview.html) ...

But in your case I wouldn't recommend that, as you want to record too, I believe (until proven wrong) that the Atom+ION solution is well suited for playback only (mythtv front-end or xbmc).

Straight recording of a digital TV source shouldn't be too taxing. I used to record BBC HD via DVB-T during the HD trial in 2006 on a 733MHz Celeron with no problems, and that was at 20Mbs.

Decoding is what takes the CPU grunt, recording is pretty straightforward as digital TV signals are pre-encoded to MPEG2 or H264 by the broadcaster, all that MythTV has to do to record is take the required PIDs from the DVB or ATSC digital TV card and record them to disk.

Only if you re-encode, software encode from an analogue capture card without hardware compression, or otherwise process your recordings do you need a powerful CPU for the back-end.

AIUI MythTV requires more processing for the front-end during replay (particularly for H264 stuff) - but the ION can offload this to the 9400 integrated graphics using VDPAU so doesn't require a powerful CPU.