AW: [mythtv-users] mythtv on EPIA MII 12000

[Steven]

JJ van Gorkum wrote:

> Patrick Wenger wrote:
>
>>> I am thinking about building a HTPC system with mythtv and was 
>>> wondering
>>> about the capabilities of a using a mini-itx system:
>>>
>>> The setup mini-itx with MI12000 board, 512 Mb memory, 160 GB disk
>>> (SP1614N)
>>> and a Hauppage PVR 350 adapter
>>>
>>> will the system capable of doing:
>>>
>>> - play a DVD (ogle or xine) while recording a TV program.
>>> - play a CD (mplayer) while recording a TV program.
>>> - play a .avi (mplayer) while recording a TV program.
>>>
>>> or would it be better to go for a ATX solution with more power...
>>>   
>>
>>
>> Since there's no response so far: I'm building a similar system at the
>> moment (same hardware). It's not finished yet so I can't really 
>> answer your
>> questions at this time ether. However, I chose the via motherboard 
>> because
>> of its size and the possibility to build a stylish system for the living
>> room (I use a cubit 3 case). If size and style doesn't matter to you 
>> then go
>> for a regular ATX solution. It's cheaper, faster and you will most 
>> probably
>> have less problems building the system... As soon as I have my system
>> running I will be happy to let you know the results concerning your
>> performance questions.
>>
>> Patrick
>>  
>>
> Thanks for the answers so far: but this is the reason I have asked 
> this question: there are a lot of perople who have started a project 
> like this (on a MII 12000 board) but no one can tell me if system is 
> capable of doing the basic HTPC stuff. I have found the linpvr site 
> but the main goal of that project is running the frontend on a EPIA 
> board and the backend (wich will include the PVR adapter) on a 
> different system.
> Like I have said before I want to run all software (frontend and 
> backend) on the same system... (and toss my video recorder/dvd player 
> and cd player out the window)
>
I've set up a system with a EPIAM10000 and a PVR250.
Problem with the EPIA (at least the 10000 but i think a read this goes 
for the 12000 also) is that you will need to use hardware decoding 
(viaslice) if you want to use the EPIA's onboard tv-out for mythtv 
playback. The quality of this is still less then the normal software 
decoding playback I've seen with a nvidia or sis card. (the OSD is 
grayscale and there are mpeg decoding artefacts that are not in the 
recordings)
For mpeg4 and DVD playback you can do without the HW decoding (using 
mplayer and/or xine) and get decent results with the EPIA, but not for 
live tv and recordings playback using mythtv.

You mention a PVR350. You could use that tvout for myth playback and get 
great results but you can't use it for decent quality DVD and mpeg4 
playback.

I suggest you get a system with a better processor so you can do 
software mpeg decoding and use a PVR250.

Steven