[mythtv-users] Digimatrix success stories/sources?
David Schmidt
david.schmidt.in.dallas at gmail.com
Thu Jul 6 12:29:46 UTC 2006
On 7/5/06, David Snider <dsnider at thesniderpad.com> wrote:
> >
> > I *really* like the ASUS Digimatrix for a remote frontend, but have
> > heard conflicting reports as to how well it works with Linux/Myth.
> > Has anyone tried it and either have glowing success or horror stories
> > to share?
> I've been running MythTV on my DigiMatrix since 0.16. Overall,
> pretty solid machine.
>
> >
> > - Diskless net-booting or just a boot partition on CF (read-only) and
> > getting everything else NFS? I'm trying to make it "abrupt power-off"
> > safe.
> >
> I'm actually toying with this right now. I've had a 250GB hard drive
> in it for some time. The problem with netbooting is that I can't
> seem to get it to boot automatically via PXE. If I enable the 100MB
> card with netboot, it brings up a menu, with Local as option 1, PXE
> as option 2, and NetWare something or other as option 3. You have to
> use the keyboard to select option 2. I can't seem to find a way to
> make it boot PXE by default. If I enable the Gigabit card for
> booting, nothing happens. I *do* have a working diskless machine
> (laptop) that works great, so I know my server is setup correctly.
> Also, when I *manually* select PXE, it boots. I'm messing with a
> bootable CDROM with Grub and Netboot now to get around this.
Hmmm. Ok, I'll definitely plan on a small read-only /boot on CF,
then. Good to know!
> > - The included remote?
> This was troublesome for some time. The latest version of LIRC now
> has the remote driver bundled in, so it's no problem. On Gentoo, you
> just have to make sure you use the correct USE flags for the digimatrix.
> >
> > - The (digital and analog) tuners?
> Digital? The only option that I was able to find "Digital" was via
> the firewire and Comcast cable boxes. I may be missing something.
> Analog seems to work OK, but I had to really mess with the saa7134
> kernel module drivers to get it to work.
Yeah, after I sent that, I read that there's only one tuner and it's
analog. Don't know where I got in my head that it had both. Not that
much of an issue, as I'm planning 2 digital and 1 analog in the
separate MBE, so would only pull up a SBE on the digi in truly
exceptional circumstances.
> >
> > - Outputting SD and HD.
> Only worked with SD, not HD. As far as SD goes, I have a celeron
> processor in there HD doesn't work for me. I'd go with the best CPU
> you can find (2.8 P4 if I'm not mistaken) to attempt HD.
Yep. 2.8 P4s are getting cheap enough these days that that's not an issue.
> >
> > - The front display?
> I've had really good success with the S-Video, Composite, Component,
> and VGA output. Right now, I have it plugged into an AV/Reciever
> with the Component plugs going to a plasma tv @ 1280x720 res. No
> issues.
Well, actually I meant the LCD/LED display for showing
time/temperature/etc. like normally done with LCDProc.
> >
> > - The DVD drive/writer?
> Mine only has a CD writer, DVD Player. Works fine for playing DVD's
> and burning CD's.
> >
> > - The firmware "DJ" mode?
> From what I can tell, this "only" works if you preinstall Windows.
> Never did that, so it doesn't work.
Hmm... Might be an option with the CF. Definitely not a deal breaker, though.
> >
> > - Anything else in general.
> As far as the comment about the SPDIF port being in front, mine works
> great, and I really don't care that it is in the front. My
> Digimatrix is under my bed in my bedroom (completely out of sight).
> And the SPDIF works great.
> >
> >
> > Also, anyone know of a reasonable/reputable source for new
> > Digimatrixes? Newegg recently dropped them, TigerDirect doesn't have
> > them. http://www.sysbuilder.com/sysconfigurators/digimatrix.htm has
> > them but want $399US a piece which IIRC is a good chunk more than
> > Newegg wanted.
> >
> Got mine from newegg a while back, sorry. Haven't been shopping for
> one since. There used to be a very good forum for them @ http;//
> outertrack.com but it seems to be down. I get 404 when I try to
> visit. I run a wiki for it, but there hasn't been much interest as
> of late. The address is http://digiwiki.thesniderpad.com
Yeah, newegg dropped it about 2 weeks before I started getting serious
about it :-(. Their contact email says they can't even special-order
it for me. I had been following the outertrack forum, but it's been
down over a month now. I'll check out your wiki!
>
> I'm happy to provide any advice on setup, config, etc.
>
Thanx!! I may take you up on that if I find a new one at a reasonable
price..... Lot's of good info already!
DS
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