[mythtv-users] Frontend for home theater

[Alberto Alonso]

On Fri, 2005-11-04 at 22:02 -0700, Chad wrote:
> On 11/4/05, Michael Tiller <michael.tiller at gmail.com> wrote:
> > At work we just got a $700 computer projector that looks fantastic.  I

It helps to specify model numbers so that the rest of us
can actually see the full specs :-)

> > to hook a very simple MythTV frontend up to it.  My plan would be to have
> > only a DVD reader, small hardrive (if necessary), network and video card in
> > it (i.e. no tuner cards and no direct live TV feed to the projector...only
> > live TV from a backend over the network).

I'm upset at Via for the way they marketed the Epia. But I've been
working hard on getting the M6000 working diskless and all you have
to buy is memory and a dvd-rom, the rest is built into the MB. With 
no moving parts, it makes a "totally quiet" solution.

> > 2) Any special issues with video cards?  When I hooked my laptop up the
> > projector we have at work, it seemed like my laptop was putting out a
> > special resolution on the output port and that the projector was matching
> > it.  The widescreen version looked great.  Will all video cards+X.conf be
> > able to provide the optimal widescreen resolution or is this a special
> > feature to look for?
> 
> Nvidia is really nice.  I don't know if I'd stray too far at this
> point in time from Nvidia cards.  Until something major changes, I
> believe this is generally considered what Myth users suggest.

As always I am upset at ALL video card vendors and their lack of real
Linux support. They tend to show and promote hints that they work under
Linux just to drive you nuts when you actually try to get everything
working. So, no matter what the choice is expect problems.

> > 3) The projector we have at work is a 1600 lumens Panasonic.  It also seems
> > fairly cheap.  I get the impression it can support some pretty high
> > resolutions (HDTV?)
> 
> Sweet.  I have no idea if this is the case, but check out sites like
> projectorcentral.com  (which has a group of very intelligent folks on
> their lists) for info on what projectors to look for and look OUT for.

As properly mentioned before me, look at the lamp replacement and
duration costs. It may surpass the projector price really quick.

> > 6) I considered a diskless configuration (probably save me money), but it
> > seems SO COMPLICATED to setup.  Could I boot KnoppMyth and then take the > DVD out?

I'll eventually have a document describing how to get
KnoppMyth R5A16 working on a diskless environment with the
Epia. This doesn't have to deal with booting from the DVD
drive, but rather uses the PXE booting.

If you don't use a MB with PXE, you can buy Intel Gbit cards
with PXE for less than $50 (but its cheaper to get the MB
with PXE)

> :D  Check ebay for some old P3 Dell Optiplex G110's.  I think that's

Chad, as I mentioned to Michael it helps to have specific details.
I've always been interested in finding the real lower-end hardware
able to be a front end. There are a lot of reports about what "should"
be a working solution, but few objective results are posted. If you
don't mind please let us know memory, CPU, idle, Decibels leve, etc.
info on playing TV, DVD, etc. Obviously for a frontend only I don't
think capturing, encoding and commercial flagging info is needed.

Alberto