[mythtv-users] mythtv-users Digest, Vol 64, Issue 32

Peter VanDerWal peter at vanderwal.us
Wed Jul 9 09:27:14 UTC 2008


> $115 for a nicely designed HTPC case seems a positive bargain after
> browsing the other options.  My only complaint is that the Fusion and 2480
> are a bit large.   But to use the slow quiet 120mm fans they need to be
> large--or at least 120 mm tall.

It's roughly the same size as my A/V amplifier, and nicely balances it on
the shelf.
It looks good in my living room, but I certainly wouldn't put it in the
bedroom.  The Myth box I'm building for the bedroom is all passive cooling
in a mini-itx form factor.  I haven't settled on a mobo yet.

> Do folks really find the VFD very useful?   It looks like an additional
> configuration headache for not much real return to me, but then, I'm still
> in the research phase, not the experience phase.

One could argue that MythTV isn't "very useful".
For me, the VFD is handy.  If I walk through the living room and notice
the HDD activity light, I can glance at the VFD and see what's being
recorded.
I'm transfering all of my DVDs to the HDD.  To save space I'm transcoding
them to MPEG4 and this typically takes a couple hours each.  Rather than
burn in my plasma display, I usually turn it off while ripping (unless I'm
watching a show) and go do something else.  The VFD displays the progress
of the rip, so I only have to glance at it every now and then to figure
out when to start the next disk.
Technically, I could do the whole rip, start to finish, eject and start
again, just using the VFD, but it is a little limited in how much data it
can display.
Some DVDs include some kind of copy protection that Myth RIP can't handle.
 I can tell when I get one of these because the estimated time to
completion just keeps growing.  This data isn't normally displayed on the
VFD.



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