<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On May 7, 2006, at 2:12 PM, Dennis Hand wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </FONT><FONT face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" color="black" size="2"><FONT face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" color="black" size="2">Brian Wood wrote: <BR><FONT color="#660066">> I know, we've all seen the posts: <BR>> <BR>> "I (found in a dumpster / was offered for $5) a computer. All I know <BR>> about it is (It says "286" on the front / It says "Altair") and I was <BR>> wondering if it will work With Myth. I plan to connect it to my <BR>> network with (a 300-baud modem / my cell phone), and storage will be <BR>> (punch cards / magnetic drum). I will need to drive 6 High-Definition <BR>> displays simultaneously, each with a separate 1080i signal. Do you <BR>> think it will work ??" <BR>> <BR>> Not to be outdone, I found this: <BR>> <BR>> <A href="http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BB-U-BUDDIE-SYS&cat=BBK&cpc=JAD" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BB-U-BUDDIE-SYS&cat=BBK&cpc=JAD</A> <BR>> <BR>> Since I have the RAM and the drives, I'm only risking $120. <BR>> <BR>> What I wonder about is the "64-bit 2D/3D graphics accelerator". Is <BR>> this just a UniChrome variant? I don't know much about those, but I'd <BR>> never heard they were 64-bit. What "acceleration" might it provide ? <BR>> <BR>> I'm wondering if it might do SD only, perhaps with XvMC or a <BR>> Unichrome-only driver ? I'd really like to be able to playback MPEG-4 <BR>> streams, sort of a "Rich Man's MediaMVP that can do MPEG-4". <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> Brian Wood <BR>> beww[at]beww.org </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2">Hi Brian,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2">Doubt very much this is Unichrome capable. I recently sold a MythTV system very</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2">similiar to this on Ebay. The model your looking at states a 1.1GHz which in fact</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2">is a incorrect. It's actually somewhere around 800MHz. The onboard graphics is</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2">an SiS chipset which should work very well especially using Thomas Winischhofer's</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2">SiS driver. I used this along with an Avermedia M179 with this setup and the frontend only</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2">pulled about 60%. With the improvements to MythTV it "should" run even lower than that.</FONT></DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Yeah, if you look at the specs on the site John Mitchell pointed me to it states that the 1.1Ghz. is a "performance" figure and the actual speed is 800Mhz., exactly as you said (Thanks again John). More or less like the numbers in an AMD CPU name I guess ?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I went ahead and ordered one, since I already have a hard drive and some RAM for it, as well as an optical drive that should work, I figure what the heck for $120? The specs also don't say if the USB ports are 1.1 or 2.0, so I assume they are 1.1, but of course I could use the PCI slot for a 2.0/Firewire controller.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Looks like a decent deal for the price, and a way to utilize some of the stuff in my junk drawer (which is actually more of a "junk garage" at this point). If I can get it to play SD MPEG-4 I can replace my MVP and transcode everything to MPEG-4 to save space.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>