[mythtv-users] Navigating the hardware mine field

[Paul Gardiner]

Joe Henley wrote:
> Paul,
> 
> I have a Via M6000E running as a front end only.  It has no fans (the 
> M10000 has a CPU fan) and no disks.  It runs MiniMyth for the front end. 
>   It does fine with SD and with the OSD.  The only time I get any screen 
> problems is when I fast forward on a recorded show while I'm recording 
> another one.  That's more likely a problem with the back-end than the 
> front end.

That's encouraging. Minimyth and the M6000 are really looking like a
simple solution for me to get small and silent.

> So I'm reasonably happy with it.  However, I would never recommend any 
> Via product to anyone; nor will I ever buy another.  As much as I like 
> the small form factor, and the particular hardware Via put on this 
> board, the company's tech support is abysmal.  For years they advertised 
> as supporting Linux, which was a flat-out lie.  They have recently hired 
> someone to work on improving support for Linux, and that person does 
> seem to making some headway, but so far the progress is all on their 
> newer product lines and none on the older stuff (like the m10000 or 
> M6000).  In other words, helping them get new business, but not 
> supporting the current customers.
> 
> I spent several _months_ trying to get a straight answer from their Tech 
> Support about the operation of one of the parameters on their closed 
> source drivers and never got a meaningful reply.  For months they would 
> say only that they were strong supporters of Linux, but never addressed 
> the question I asked.   Maddeningly frustrating.
> 
> It is possible their recent efforts may someday lead to decent Linux 
> support, but first they have alot of work to do and alot of current Tech 
> Support people to retrain or replace.

That's hopeless, isn't it. So a good chance that Minimyth doesn't
support the CN700 chip exactly because of what you say above.

> I'd strongly suggest you look at some of the new Intel boards to build 
> your Myth FE.  I find MythTV to be new enough and sufficiently complex 
> that it is .... "challenging" to get up, running, and fully tweaked to 
> your liking.  I suspect you'll find, as I did, that you don't need any 
> additional headaches from the hardware.

That's the frustrating thing. So far MythTV has been really easy to set
up. I have a server running as an MTA and web server, using SuSE 11.0.
Installing MythTV, as a backend, on that proved dead easy. I had a
problem with the tv card, but that turned out to be a duff card (in fact
with some help from linuxtv.org, I had the duff card working for a while
with a driver hack).

I also set up a temporary frontend on my spare, unused server, and
that went really easily. Now I feel ready to build a real frontend
to drive my TV, and I'm stuck just because I can't determine with
confidence the motherboard to use.

Your reply is very helpful, just in saying "I used this and it works
without significant problem".

Cheers,
	Paul.