[mythtv-users] Tablet PC's

[Michael Lynch]

On 6/8/06, Bob <spam at homeurl.co.uk> wrote:
> Dawson, Guy wrote:
> >> Ivan Kowalenko : 08 June 2006 02:40
>
> 8< snip 802.11b probably not fast enough for Myth.
>
> > Strangely,  I wasn't thinking of using it without wiring it to the network!
> > I was actually think of hanging it on a wall instead of a small LCD TV.
> >
> > This line of thought was prompted by another thread herein regarding
> > (Myth)calender.  The question there was regarding the problems of using a
> > low res (ie TV) screen for applications typically designed for desktops.  I
> > got to thinking that this was back to front,  and that for small screens (eg
> > in bedrooms / utility areas) it would be better to start with a PC.  Trouble
> > is you need a compact solutions.  This led me to thinking about tablets,
> > although there are some all-in-ones that would also do the job!
> >
> > The biggest issue I expect would be video decoding.  Like laptops,  you
> > don't get to swap video cards, so this would be the make / break question.
>
> For that reason I am in the process of throwing together 3 667Mhz PIIIs
> PCs, (mainly out of spares) I've got a source of cheap second hand i815
> motherboards and the only other things I'm having to buy are PSUs
> (either a Fortron FSP300-60GNF if I've got the cash or Sky Hawk Power
> One if I haven't) and a big heat sync (Scythe Katana fits a socket 370
> and is big enough to keep a PIII 667 well below 60 with no fan) after
> that if the i815 graphics can't help enough to do good SD, I'll get some
> AGP Nvidia 5200s, (or ATI 9250s if the XvMC is working for them by then)
> but I suspect I'll be OK, 3 cheap diskless, fanless frontends that I'll
> probably just nail to the wall.
>
> > The type of machine I was think of are the things you see on ebay at around
> > £250.  These seem to have 600Mhz - 1Ghz PIII class processors, and a variety
> > of video hardware.
> >
> > I suppose I was looking for stories of success with particular hardware, so
> > I could put some money down with reasonable confidence!
>
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For hardware sakes, here is one of my slave backend/frontend machines:

[root at mythroom ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 8
model name      : Pentium III (Coppermine)
stepping        : 3
cpu MHz         : 599.946

[root at mythroom ~]# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           249        243          6          0          8        115
-/+ buffers/cache:        118        131
Swap:          509          0        509

[root at mythroom ~]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82820 820 (Camino) Chipset Host
Bridge (MCH) (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82820 820 (Camino) Chipset AGP
Bridge (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801AA PCI Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801AA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801AA IDE (rev 02)
00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801AA USB (rev 02)
02:01.0 Multimedia audio controller: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24
[CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator] (rev 01)
02:09.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7133 Video
Broadcast Decoder (rev 10)
02:0d.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 74)
02:0f.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4
MX 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1)

[root at mythroom ~]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1             9.7G  2.5G  6.8G  27% /
/dev/shm              125M     0  125M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda3             176G   23M  176G   1% /myth

It's not the beefiest machine in the world but it does me fine for SD
capture/playback.