Moore, and Fahrenheit 9/11 distributor Lions Gate Films, both have no problem if people pirate the film. Check out the article: Moore: pirate my film, no problem.
Daily Archives: July 6, 2004
MythTV Hardware Review
Last week, I posted a list of hardware that I’m buying for my MythTV. Most if it has arrived and I can make some comments about it now.
First, the Chenbro case is really bad. One of the hard drive bays is inaccessible due to being placed over the motherboard (!) and the other one requires the drive to be mounted upside-down. The 5.25″ bays are also poor, not letting one drive in all four screws (one of them only permits two, and right above each other at that, anchoring only 1 of 4 possible anchor points.)
The Biostar board is nice, but here’s the rub: while it features TV out and S/PDIF out pins on the motherboard, the board doesn’t ship with the connectors necessary to make it work! They charge $12 and $15, respecitvely, for the requires connectors, so this thing is not yet working with a TV.
The Samsung hard drive is great and it is indeed quiet as claimed. I’d heartily reccommend it.
And the Athlon XP 2200+ CPU is, of course, also a very nice one.
The Hauppauge card hasn’t arrive yet; I’m using a very old WinTV card until it does. More on that when it gets here.
MythTV remote suggestion
A lot of MythTV users are using lirc for their remote receivers. There are a lot of problems with lirc. For one, it doesn’t come with 2.6 drivers, and it also is limited to working with a single device on the system (or a very nasty hackish solution for multiple devices).
Here’s another option: get an infrared keyboard and a learning remote. I picked up a wireless infrared keyboard for $17 at newegg.com. This keyboard has a receiver module that plugs into PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, and the transmitter is infrared.
Next step: get a learning remote. I picked up a One For All URC-8810 at Walmart for $20. Contrary to the documentation, almost all keys can be learned, not just L1-L4. It does have a limited memory, but it is enough to program all the keys I need.
All in all, a slick solution. Total cost: $37, and you get a useful remote and keyboard (with mouse stick) that you’d probably have wanted anyway.