New to Linux, wanting PVR and games

[nickwordsworth 0]

I want a machine I can use for a PVR and doing the odd bit of website up[censored] etc. I have never used linux before, but am told it will be a system that does not crash, as opposed to 98SE which I run now.

 

However, I am keen to be able to run certain games which will require Windows - Age of Empires for example.

 

My questions are therefore:

 

Do I need a dual boot, and if so what form of Linux is best?

 

If not, what software will I need with what type of Linux to let me play the Windows games?

 

Does anyone know of any good PVR software?

 

My system is 1GHz Duron on a Gigabyte 71XE4 board

512 MB SDRam

Vibra 16 Soundblaster

CDRW & CD ROM

I'm about to get a 120GB HD, TV Tuner, TV Out video card and DVDRW etc but I want to know if the Linux switch is viable before buying it all!

 

Cheers

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

 

[lorddraxar 0]

You're starting from Windows 98 SE? No wonder you got crashing problems... For that Linux thing however... Keep in mind that while most of Linux distributions like Mandrake, Fedora Core or SUSE are simple to use, Linux is still more complicated than Windows so you may want to read a little about linux before starting, otherwise you could get stuck.

 

As for the hardware... Linux is not exactly power hungry and should run on any Pentium (or 386 in some distros) with about 128Mb of RAM.

 

The specs you got will require you to use hardware based encoders unless you want frame skips when recording in DVD quality.

 

The program you are looking for is MythTV. I do not use it however because I got an Adaptec VideOh card, and SageTV does a much better job, however it only runs on Windows... but since it's JAVA based, maybe they will make it available to Linux (cross fingers). MythTV can use either software encoding or hardware encoding. But in your case, unless VideoCDs are your only targets, you must use a hardware encoder. I sugget Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 or PVR-350 for they are supported under Linux. They also produce DVD quality MPEG2 streams.

 

For the game thing, WineX is the program you need. It's now called Cedega and made by Transgaming. For the DOS based games, try DOSBox, but that one requires a fast CPU, since you got 1Ghz, you might be able to run old games but it will probably require some tweaking. For running Age of Empires, Cedega should do more than it's job.

 

You only need dual boot if you actually want to KEEP Windows. If you choose to do so, Windows will be selectable from GRUB (a menu that will appear before starting your operating system).

 

A Linux switch is viable only if you know what you're doing. Most of the time, little configuration will be required, but since you want to do PVR, I suggest you read documentation before trying.

 

If you are a computer newbie, maybe you should resort to WinXP. That one doesn't hang too often (I'm suprised you still use Win98 with such machine!).

 

[SoulNothing 0]

i would agree with myth tv, and for the games your going to need cedga

 

you have any distrobutions in mind, and also any problem with setting up anything just ask around here

 

heres the site for myth tv http://www.mythtv.org/

 

and cedega http://www.transgaming.com/