[mythtv-users] nf-m2 motherboard alternatives?

Chad masterclc at gmail.com
Fri May 4 01:15:40 UTC 2007


On 5/1/07, Shane Hickey <shane at howsyournetwork.com> wrote:
> Ok.  Here's my situation.  I built this system:
>
> 1X - Antec NSK2400 Case -
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129014
> 1X - winTV-pvr 500
> 1X - winTV-pvr 350
> 1X abit NF-M2 motherboard -
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127013
> 1X AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ processor -
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103751
> 2X 1G Memory 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 -
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134009

Looks nice!

> I apparently didn't think of everything before I built it, though, because when I got the board I realized that it has only VGA and DVI outs.  But, my TV is a Sony Vega 27" flatscreen and it only has S-video, component, compposite, etc inputs.  No VGA or DVI inputs.

Isn't it Wega?

> Well, I was going to bite the bullet and get a new LCD tv.  But, my entertainment center only has a little less than 31" of width available.  So, I could only get a 26" LCD tv to fit in there and I have a feeling that 26" of flatscreen will look smaller.  And, I'm an American, by god! ;) Plus, TVs are expensive and I'm only generally watching DVDs and non-HD tv.  So, it seems like I should be able to live with this TV.

I'm American too, and I can't believe you are even looking at anything
less than 60"!  :D  Go for an LCD (but not 27, more like 32-42).

> Also, I haven't been able to get more than 2 channels of audio from the SPDIF output of my nf-m2 board.  Using alsa's speaker-test -c6, I only get front left and right.  I'm reading all sorts of other nightmare talk about the hda-intel driver, so I'm nervous that it's going to be hell.

Good luck with that.

> So, for those of you still reading.  I would love to solve these problems using less then $300.  So, if I can get another micro ATX board with S-video out and a known-to-be-working SPDIF multi-channel output, I would jump on it right now.  Or, I guess another option is to a) use the IVTV s-video output, but on my old setup I remember that this doesn't look too great or b) get some sort of VGA/DVI->s-video converter.

$300 bucks!  Hopefully you mean the problems with the DVR, not with
the small square TV ;)

> My only quality requirement is that it looks better than the IVTV s-video output off of the PVR350 that I used to be using.

Sorry I can't comment on the quality difference because I've never
seen a PVR-350 (and I mostly just watch HD so it rules that out
anyway).

> Thanks much, in advance, for any ideas you might have!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Shane
>

My cheap and easy suggestion is the M2NPV-VM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131014
That requires no other swapping of hardware and gives you everything
you want and nothing you don't, and all for what, ~$95 after shipping.

My other suggestion is to just get the new TV.  The reason I suggest
something considerably bigger is because you appear to have some 4:3
content.  If you watch your 4:3 content on a same-size 16:9 TV, you'll
get a considerably smaller image.  While if you watch it on say a 42",
you'll get a slightly bigger but close image size as to what you get
with your 27".  And the totally awesome upside is that when you watch
HD content it will fill the screen with beautiful vibrant images
helping you realize you no longer like 4:3 content.  :D

-Chad


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