Member Avatar for only_lonely

:?:
Currently i am searching the component for my home theater PC.

Anybody any suggestion on the processor that support real time and time shift MPEG-2 encoding?

Which motherboard, CPU and processor has the best performance?

THANKS!

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Short answer for : the biggest practical choice is whether the capture card does MPEG‑2 encoding on the card or the PC will do it in software. As and hinted, offloading encoding to the tuner/encoder card keeps the system far less stressed during real‑time capture and timeshift.

A simple component checklist to use when comparing parts:

  • Capture path: prefer a card or external box that can do on‑board MPEG‑2 encoding if you want reliable live timeshift without a heavy CPU. If you plan to re‑encode a lot or want higher quality/alternative codecs, plan for stronger CPU power instead.
  • Motherboard/slots: choose a board with a reliable PCI bus (avoid cheap bridged/shared bandwidth designs) and enough slots so the tuner isn’t forced to share a congested bus.
  • Memory and storage: allocate enough RAM for the OS + buffering and use a dedicated drive (or dedicated partition/RAID) for capture to keep writes sequential. Sustained write performance is more important than peak burst.
  • GPU and playback: GPU isn’t needed for encoding but a card with hardware video decode helps smooth playback of recorded streams.
  • Noise and cooling: pick quiet, low‑vibration drives and a case/PSU that won’t turn the living room into a server farm.

Setup and troubleshooting tips:

  • Do a long continuous capture test before trusting the build; monitor CPU, disk throughput and interrupt activity.
  • If you see dropped frames, try updated drivers/firmware, move the card to another slot, enable DMA, disable background services, and increase the capture buffer size.
  • Use capture software that supports a circular (timeshift) buffer and pre‑allocate the buffer file to avoid fragmentation.

Final note: MPEG‑2 is fine for compatibility and simple DVD workflows, but if storage is a concern consider more modern codecs for archives. Match your hardware choice to whether you need always‑on real‑time timeshift (favor on‑board encode) or flexible post‑capture transcoding (favor CPU + fast disks).

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Member Avatar for doublethefist

on my FlyTV Prime 34 card
mpeg 2 encoding specs are P4 1.6ghz or AMD 1.6 128mb ram min 256 recomended
and ur VGA card needs directx 8.1 support

this puppy costed me $66 AUD thats approximatly 17 big macs lol

i know its not much but i hope it helps

Member Avatar for alc6379

Looking past the great specs doublethefist posted, I suggest making sure you get a card with hardware encoding. The Hauppage PVR-250 is a pretty nice card, IMHO.

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