[mythtv-users] Hardware for HD Playback

[Bob]

On Friday 24 August 2007 04:31, David George wrote:
> On 08/23/2007 11:51 AM, Chris Tepe wrote:
> > With the change from Zap2it to SD probably requiring an upgrade I'm
> > thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
> > play back.  I'm looking for some recommendations  as to MB, CPU, Memory
> > and Video Card.  I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
> > frontends.  I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
> > really address the HD issue clearly.  My current systems are a couple of
> > atholon 2300+ w/ nVidia gforce cards  and a HD Home run .  my playback
> > was very choppy.
>
> You don't mention your output method to your HDTV.  There are lots of
> messages on this list about hardware.  Probably your best bet for good
> matches would be to search the archives for "hd motherboard".
>
> In any case, if you can use VGA, DVI-D, or component out the Asus
> M2NPV-VM with an Athlon X2 3600+ works great for HD and you don't need
> to resort to xvmc.  It includes onboard nVidia 6150 with the above
> mentioned outputs.  I have several of these boards and they work great.

I've recently put a machine together around the M2NPV-VM.  Currently it is 
doing BE/FE but will eventually be a diskless FE.  I've only been using for 
SD but it works fine.

A couple of things worth mentioning:

There is no onboard S/PDIF, you need to purchase a little expansion board.

The heatsink on the onboard graphics is small.
Running fancontrol to quiet the cpu fan results in a _very_ hot chip and 
surrounding board.  No stability problems but I've only run it for maybe 3 
hours at a time.  It can't be good to be that hot.  Airflow when the cpu fan 
is fullspeed is enough to keep it cool though.  Until I get a quieter HSF 
I've got a cardboard duct going to a case fan.  I moonlight as a breakfast 
cereal duct designer for NASA so this might not be an appropriate solution 
for those without access to the requisite precision machine-shop.

Bob