[mythtv-users] Seeking Motherboard Advice

[Kenneth Emerson]

I have combed through the archives and have found much on hardware
recommendations but am still confused about video.

I am branching out of my comfort zone of a single BE/FE box to an
additional FE box.  I want it to be small as it will be sitting on a
bookcase in the kitchen eating area.  I have been convinced that I
need to not skimp on the processor so am looking at an I3 or I5
processor in the 3.2->3.3GHz range. I seem to understand with that
much processing power I can do decoding in the CPU and not rely on the
GPU (vdpau).

So the question that begs to be asked, do I have to have an NVIDIA
video board (either on-board or add-in)?  I am looking at the ASROCK
mobo (ASRock H67M-ITX LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini
ITX Intel Motherboard) which has the Intel graphics 2000/3000 built
in.  I have seen that there has been work within MythTV for VA-API
which originally came from Intel (but not much discussion about it).

So, can I use the Intel graphics on this mobo for H.264 playback as
well as mpeg2 1080p files without stuttering?  Does the va-api support
within MythTV provide any GPU acceleration similar to VDPAU?  Is this
a wise choice for a FE?

-- Ken E.