In the near future, You will be able to order a dedicated mythtv box from this site. If this is something that intrest you, please drop us an email at admin@mythtvworks.com and let us know.
First things first, and since you cannot begin without hardware, I'm going to start there. Basically, the faster the cpu and more memory the better. On the offical mythtv website they list a few data points.
A PIII/800MHz system with 512MB RAM can encode one video stream using the RTjpeg codec with 480x480 capture resolution and play it back simultaneously, thereby allowing live TV watching.
A dual Celeron/450MHz is able to view a 480x480 MPEG-4/3300kbps file created on a different system with 30% CPU usage.
A P4 2.4GHz machine can encode two 3300Kbps 480x480 MPEG-4 files and simultaneously serve content to a remote frontend.
A few years ago, when I started my mythtv tinkerings, I used an Athlon +1800 CPu on an Nforce2 motherboard with 512M of Ram. I have since upgraded and for this project I'm using
CPU: Intel Core2Duo E6750 clocked at 2.66. I'm going to recomend nothing less than 2 Gigahertz. AMD or Intel
Motherboard: Asus P5N32E-Si Nforce 680i
Graphics: An older Evga 7800GTX
Memory: I supplied 2 Gigs but I have read that 256 Megs with a dedicated MPEG2 decoder, like on the Hauppague 250 TV tuner cards, is plenty. I have never tried a mythtv install with less than 512 Megs of memory so I can not confirm this. I have it, so I use it.
Hard Drives: I'm Using 3. 120 Gigs for my linux install 750 Gigs for my Divx encoded movies And a seaperate 500 Gigs for my tv recordings. Its plenty for now. The more the better. Consider this, typical values for MythTV range from 700 megabytes/hour for MPEG-4, 2 GB/hour for MPEG-2 and RTjpeg and 7 GB/hour for ATSC HDTV. Stay away from older hard drives that have been laying around for a while. Go for a newer drive with a 7200RPM speed. Most drives sold today have a cache of at least 8Megs. Find and use those
TV tuners: I'm using a Hauppauge PVR 250. There are other brands, but from what I remember reading in the forums, other brands are a mixed review. Some work for some people while others struggle. The Hauppauge cards just work. The PVR 250's have a hardware MPEG2 Decoder taking the load off of your CPU. Important it your CPU clocks less than a 2 Megahertz. Mythtv lets you add as many as your motherboard will allow. And with todays motherboards offering just 2 PCI slots a board you are going to be limited to that. 2 cards let you watch one show while recording another. If your using just one card, you can only do one at a time. (unless you want to watch what you are recording while it records)
Another consideration for you in your planning is, where are you going to place your machine? Asthetics and Noise come into play here. You'll have to evaluate that yourself. My setup is in my finished basement. Im using a big ole tower connected to a monitor in the rear of the room. As such, looks aren't that important to me. Dont get me wrong, I love the case I have. Its a Coolmaster RC-690.
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Coolmaster RC-690 Lots of cooling options with this case. has rear ports for water cooling tubes. Also spots for up to 8 120mm fans for lots of quiet air flow.
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