[mythtv-users] VIA ITX and case recommendations for MythTV
R. G. Newbury
newbury at mandamus.org
Sat Jul 28 15:39:22 UTC 2007
John Fountain wrote:
>> There seems to be quite a lot of ITX boards to choose from,
>> has anyone got any recommendations,
>> also suitable cases ?
I'm running an SP13000 in a Silverstone LC11M.
The Via boards can be confusing as there are multiple chipsets and the
capabilities are not always easily discoverable.
The SP13000 has the VT1623 tv out chipset, with an S-video plug built
in. That does Standard Def without difficulty, and I can do HD using the
VGA output. But I just bought an antenna last week (this morning's job
is to mount it) and I have not really checked out the HD capability.
There are LVDS/DVI daughterboards for some VIA MB's and some MB's have
other optputs. The full capabilities of some of the HD capable TV chips
have not been achieved however by the openchrome group developers,
mainly, it appears because Via will not release enough data...
So take care to match your desires with your capabilities.
With the right tuner hardware, this box will record 4 SD streams at
once, and play back a recorded SD program. I have a PVR500, and an
(external) HdHomeRun..-> 4 streams.
But I am worried that I will have to change the box or the motherboard
if i want to do full HD..and I should (cross fingers!) have about a
dozen digital channels incoming by late this afternoon. Damn I hate
fishing coax cable through the joists and down a wallspace.
The LC11M case is a very striking stereo-receiver sized case. It comes
with a VFD and IR receiver, and a remote (Imon PAD handled by lirc) and
it works fine! One of the original 80mm case fans was a little loud for
my liking as was the 40mm CPU fan. I replaced them with Silenx versions
for about $30 CDN total and the noise went way down. The power supply
has started to make a little white noise and probably needs a few
minutes of Q-tip maintenance to clean its fan blades. It's been over a
year and a half..
The case has physical space for 3 PCI cards, mounted horizontally, on
the back. To match a PCI card to the case with the single PCI slot VIA
board, you need the Via-original 2 slot PCI riser card and a flexible
PCI extender. You need the Via riser to handle the electrical connection
properly (which normal risers do not do). You need the flexible extender
to adjust for physical mis-alignment. Together about $40.00.
With the proviso that you might need those adjusters, this case and
board combination is really nice.
But, as I said, I don't know if it will handle HD very well. I think it
can...but I will have to wait and see....
Hope this helps.
Geoff
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