Instead, we bought a Philips SRU9600 remote control for $24.99 and a set of four Phillips CD445 phones for $34.99 (one base station/phone combination, and three other non-basestation phones). The phones will replace the two 2.4Ghz cordless phones that we can't use because every time we talk on them, our wireless network goes down. Plus, if we get the Tmobile@Home service, we can't wire it into our house like we can with the Optimum Online service. These four phones, plus another set of three will replace our current set of phones in our house, and T-mobile@Home should be able to handle it.
Since we didn't pick up the TV Tuner card we were looking for at the Computer Expo, we ventured down to Best Buy to pick up a TV Tuner card and a Analog to Digital TV converter. While we were at it, we picked up a 24" Samsung monitor for $325. Yes, this is not the 37" TV that I was planning to buy some day. (I've been married for 25 years, my dreams are small). But, we figured it picture was at least as high as our 21" old analog TV, so it would be just a large a picture. Plus, since it is a computer monitor and not a TV, we could use the MythTV/Boxee box as a computer when no one is watching TV.
My wife was excited about a new computer in the house because she has to share the computer with me. I tend to hog up all the computer time by doing such things as work. It's just so unfair. Anyway, we loaded Firefox, Evolution email, and Open Office (remember, this is a Linux box) on this MythTV/Boxee box for her. Now, with a real computer monitor, and a wireless keyboard and mouse, she can use that for her needs.
We picked out a Pinnacle PCTV HD card from BestBuy which is suppose to be compatible with MythTV. I made sure that the card itself had a low profile. What I didn't check was to make sure that the slot cover on the end actually fits into the slim profile Dell Inspiron 530s that we bought. I ended up removing the back cover off of the card, so it would fit into our computer. Of course, without the back cover on the end of the card, it is rather wobbly.
My son put together the system, and spent about an hour getting the card to work. He found out he had to download the firmware from the card, and then extract it. Fortunately, I was able to help him because of my Unix skills.
Where we stand now
My wife is grumbling under her breath because of the mess of boxes and parts that are strewed throughout our house. We have spent about so far about $1000 for getting rid of cable which we have determined we won't be entirely rid of anyway thanks to their monopoly on high speed Internet in our area.
My son has gotten the TV Tuner card to somewhat work. Except that the picture on the very top is full of static and there is no sound. Boxee and MythTV seem to work fine (although we haven't tried to record a program with the MythTV DVR feature). And, our picture isn't high definition. Plus, every time my son plays a video through Boxee, our router loses contact with our cable modem, and thus our Internet goes down.
It's turning out to be a long hard slog.
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