[mythtv-users] ECS LIVA Frontend

[Mark Perkins]

> On 1 Mar 2015, at 12:57 pm, "Michael Wisniewski" <mikewiz38 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Scott,
> 
> Thanks for the response.  I tell ya, one minutes, I'm about to order the Liva, and the next, I'm having second thoughts.  
> 
> I totally forgot about a lot of issues I had with my Onkyo receiver recognizing the audio and signal.  I finally got things working right (through an edid.bin) with OpenElec, and your message just reminded me of all the headaches.  
> 
> I honestly think that I might end up purchasing an Atom/ION2 box with an nvidia card in it.  I really love the box I got and it works great with everything I throw at it.  The only thing is that I paid about $250 for it new about five years ago and today, the new Atom/Ion2 boxes are still about $250 to $300.  Usually computer prices go down over the years, but for some reason, it's not for these.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 
>> On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 11:33 AM, Scott Lipcon <slipcon at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Just to add my experience - I bought one of the new ECS Liva-X models to use as a second frontend.  I got the higher end (4G/64G) model, but I think the 2G/32G one would work just as well.   It works ok as a frontend, but not without some difficulties.    I had to upgrade to Mythbuntu 14.10 (I would have preferred to use the 14.04 LTS releases) in order to get reliable HDMI audio.    It wont boot at all if the TV isn't powered on at boot-up, which is annoying but not a dealbreaker.  I spent the most time trying to get it to not lose its mind whenever the TV was off - I had to disable various screensaving/power saving options, DPMS, etc - either HDMI video wouldn't come back, or HDMI audio, or both - but eventually I got that set right, and it seems to be working well.   
>> 
>> I also don't think I'm correctly using VAAPI - the software decode works well enough, with the CPU usage around 60-70% on top while playing back HDHR-CC content.    I don't know if future kernel/driver updates will allow the VAAPI to work, or solve the 'reboot with TV off' problem - but its good enough as-is, and for $220, I'm happy.   I also considered the older zotac boxes, but they seemed a bit less "turnkey" - having to add RAM and disk, or netboot, so it would be been a bit more expensive.
>> 
> _______________________________________________

The issues with HDMI and the TV being off most likely relates to the availability (or lack thereof in the scenario where the TV is off) of EDID information. It's not something I have ever had to worry about but there have been a lot of threads on this list about it. A quick search should get you started and then ask any questions if or when you get stuck.

The high CPU utilization may relate to an intermittent (alternating) vaapi bug but more log information would be required to know for sure.
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