Hardware recommendations for MythTV/FreeBSD

[Adam Maloney]

I'm considering building a PVR setup at home, and I have some questions...

Ultimately, I'm after TiVo-like functionality...the ability to 
watch/pause/30-second-skip live TV, and record shows.  I am leaning 
towards using MythTV (but have some questions about that too)

I apologize if not all of these are 100% freebsd-related, but I'm hoping 
others on this list have similar setups.

First, I'm looking for recommendations on TV capture and TV-out cards. 
I'm strongly leaning towards the Hauppage PVR-250, since it appears to be 
well-supported, and I may be doing capturing on a lower-end machine that 
couldn't handle software encoding.  And I will probably run two cards so I 
can watch/record simultaneously.

If I go with the Hauppage - where to buy?  And do I need to pay attention 
to a particular hardware revision or if I buy the "PVR-250" will it just 
work?

How about a source for remotes that will work with FreeBSD and MythTV?

I have a K6-2/350MHz machine laying around.  Is it fast enough, with the 
right TV-out card, to be used as the feed for the TV?  That is, reading 
and decoding the recorded video from the Hauppage?  How about with 
MythTV's picture-in-picture feature (that is, decoding 2 streams, right?) 
If not, my workstation is an AMD Athlon XP 1700+, but I'd have to run coax 
upstairs...or buy another machine.

Does MythTV work well under FreeBSD?  I like what I'm reading about it, 
but the documentation is very linux-centric.  I haven't found a lot of 
information on running it under BSD.  There was a similar project I was 
reading about the other day, but I forgot the name...is Myth the best 
option?

I have what I consider 3 "sources" that feed picture into my TV - an Apex 
DVD player, analog cable, and a Gamecube.  The TV has an RF input for 
cable/antenna, and AV (RCA) inputs.  With my PVR box in the picture, how 
would this all fit together?  Can I tell the Apex to output on channel 3, 
and the TV-out card to output on channel 4, and then multiplex both 
signals onto the RF-in on the TV?  (And then the GC on A/V)

Currently the cable plugs into RF-in (cable-ready TV, no cable box), and I 
(well, the wifey) manually switch the AV jacks between the GC and the DVD 
player.

If I connect the Apex into one of the PVR cards, can I feed through that 
way?  I'm not interested in recording DVD's...I just want this to work. 
Will the tuner card not work because of Macrovision?  (This isn't one of 
the "good" Apexes (Apexi?))

I appreciate any pointers!