[mythtv-users] Hardware Advice: Single board Mini Box for HD?

Kevin Kuphal kuphal at dls.net
Tue Dec 19 22:31:17 UTC 2006


Ken Mandelberg wrote:
> I've been using mythtv on a couple of laptops with reasonable success, 
> but far from optimal for HD. One is a 2ghz pent-M with i915, the other a 
> 2ghz pent-4 with radeon 7500. The first barely holds it own at HD, the 
> second is a little short.
>
> I think its time now to buy hardware thats optimal and avoid the cpu and 
> graphics limitations in the laptops.
>
> I'm looking to build an inexpensive  very compact system based on a 
> single board computer. From my laptop experience, I think the trickiest 
> part is getting a graphics chip without hardware or driver limitations 
> in supporting xv with xvmc at hd resoluton.
>
> Beyond that I need the usual (dvi, vga, sata, firewire, usb, gig-e). I'm 
> using an HDhomerun for unencrypted QAM, and firewire to an STB for some 
> encrypted channels, so I don't need built in capture.
>
> Any suggestions? I don't really know whats around in homebrew single 
> boards with the right graphics. I don't need to render 3d graphics, it 
> just needs to handle HD mpeg2's very well.
>
> Actually, can I do any better building my own than an Intel Mac Mini? 
> The i915 in the laptop is disappointing, and I don't know how much more 
> the i950 buys you compared with a i915. It seems like the Linux driver 
> is still a work in progress and doesn't support xvmc as yet.
>   
I think the nForce 4 boards with the nVidia 6150 chipset onboard for 
video are your best bet.  I believe they are well supported for XvMC and 
can also take AMD processors all the way up to the X2 if you just want 
to throw hardware at it.

Kevin


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