[mythtv-users] Intet NUC as frontend?

Nick Rout nick.rout at gmail.com
Fri Nov 8 04:37:37 UTC 2013


On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 2:57 PM, Gary Buhrmaster
<gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 12:35 AM, Mike's JdJ <stepsisters at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> .....
> > I am using an Intel DC3217IYR NUC as a Front End
>
> For anyone looking to purchase "today", I would look
> at the new Haswell based NUCs with HD4400 (the i3 NUC)
> or HD5000 (the i5 NUC) graphics support.  They should
> use even less power than the 3rd generation processor
> NUCs at only a slight increase in price, and the new GPU
> has some additional capabilities (although I do not think
> the current Linux driver can use those capabilities yet).
> The current weakness for a potential front-end is known
> to be the GPU de-interlacing support in Linux.  For some
> (those that do not see artifacts, those that can tolerate
> artifacts, or those whose TV can support de-interlacing
> on its own), that may not be an issue today.  The codes
> committed to the master tree by Intel suggests that some
> improvements will be seen in the future, but that is the
> future.
>
> As many know, Intel has decided to end development
> of their reference design desktop motherboards.  The
> NUC is where Intel is putting its resources (and moved
> at least some of the desktop motherboard team).  It
> expects the that (about) 4" x 4" NUC motherboard
> (another half inch or so with case) will meet the needs
> of most of the consumers who desire desktop systems
> (other than the enthusiast market, where all bets are
> off, and 200 watts just for the first graphics card is not
> unusual).  With Intel announcing some interesting
> processors are currently only available in soldered
> (not socketed) versions, the entire desktop market
> is transitioning in interesting ways.
>


I referred to the XBMC market in an earlier post in this thread, and a
couple of points need to be made from my extensive reading about the NUC on
their forum:

1. XBMC users tend to be watching progressive video (rips, downloads
whatever) and therefore deinterlacing is less important to those people.
Mythtv users OTOH tend to be watching recorded, interlaced material - eg
1080i. I still have a gut feeling that nvidia deinterlacing via vdpau will
come out top in this contest.

2. Many XBMC users use windows, so their positive results may be skewed
from a linux user's perspective.

3.  For general purpose use the celeron version of the NUC is seen as
sufficient, without getting into the expense of an i3 or i5.

4. There is an Intel bug when playing 24.976 (or whatever that ugly frame
rate is) video. This has apparently been fixed in Haswell. I am also unsure
whether this is is windows issue only. Worth remembering if a flicker every
few minutes in a movie bugs you.

5. There are other small form factor options. This is quite a decent
machine
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/X-26-2G-RAM-8G-SSD-ULP-Dual-core-INTEL-C1037U-smallest-windows-pc-linux-arm/1236469668.html

The shipping was quite expensive, but compared to a NUC in my market (New
Zealand) it is great value. There are options for a bigger SSD and more
ram. There is also apparently a version with an alloy case and no fan. I
have mine loaded with Openelec at present, I will try mythbuntu on it.
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