[mythtv-users] Success! EPIA-M Fedora Core 2

[Steve Hayles (diverse)]

I did intend to run a Fedora system but ended up using debian but I can
comment on MY experience with the EPIA. Although its been a fairly long road
to get there,  I now have an epia m1000 running as combined front and
backend.  I am just looking at it through SSH right now and the backend has
been running now for over a month and the frontend only locks up very
occasionally.  

I have not had a single DMA issue with the harddrive although the DVB card I
ran took a lot of experimentation to get running reliably

I am  picking up Freeview transmissions in the UK and I am delighted with
the unit.  Its practically silent, has even achieved complete approval from
the wife,  and using the latest unichrome drivers with the flicker filter
turned off I am almost at the point where I can't tell the difference in
output between a decent Freeview box I use and the Epia.  The XvMC hardware
decoding works brilliantly and the unit can record one show and play back
another with about 25% CPU usage.

I could not get the latest color OSD patches to apply correctly but as soon
as I can solve that I would consider the system bordering on complete.

I also have another Epia network booting using minimyth and that is also a
great way to go but having had a complete ban on ugly cables around the
house its great to be able to build a compeletly standalone box.

I am not disagreeing with anything said previously but merely wanted to
share my own experience.  I have spent a year messing about with Myth,
various hardware, frontend, backend combinations and this Epia based system
suits me best.

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Travis Kelley
Sent: 05 November 2004 05:02 AM
To: Juan C. Gallardo
Cc: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Success! EPIA-M Fedora Core 2

At this point I can't personally recommend using a m10000/m6000 to anyone as
a combined frontend/backend with disks internal.  However in my experience,
and I have run mine both ways, it works great when you netboot it and don't
have any hard drives internal.  I think this is how Ivor is running his and
he says he has no problems.  I think that removing all the dma traffic from
the hard disk from the system is enough to keep it from locking on you.  If
you do get one I would definately look into netboot.

On Thu, 2004-11-04 at 13:58, Juan C. Gallardo wrote:
> I was thinking on buying a m10k, but I now I am concern about the dma 
> thing.
> You guys that already have one, would you recommend one of this in 
> case of wanting a silent computer for my tv-room?
> 
> On Thu, 2004-11-04 at 11:43 -0500, Travis Kelley wrote:
> > Not to dampen your spirits any but I had a m10000 working great to.  
> > But the dma issues do begin to become a problem if you are planning 
> > on leaving it on all the time.  One suggestion...I know it makes the 
> > system slow but turning off DMA on the hard drive does help.  
> > Actually if you network boot the eden without a hard drive people 
> > have reported great success.  I've been pretty happy with mine since 
> > I started network booting it (its almost silent also).  I have been 
> > using mine in that role here lately and it works pretty well, but 
> > I'm planning on moving back to a combined backend/frontend on a new 
> > P4 2.8 here in the next day or so.  Anybody want a used via:)
> > 
> > 
> > On Thu, 2004-11-04 at 10:51, Kenneth Wong wrote:
> > > Just wanted to share my good fortune with everyone here. :)  I've 
> > > successfully put together a Myth-TV box on an EPIA M10000 board 
> > > using Fedora Core 2.
> > > 
> > > The sound is a little iffy because I think I didn't setup ALSA 
> > > properly, but I was able to:
> > >  - record a one hour show last night
> > >  - playback the same show while it was recording
> > >  - surf through the channels
> > > 
> > > I don't know how stable it is at this point because I've heard 
> > > that there are DMA issues that may come into play.  But this is 
> > > the furthest I've ever gotten and I'm damn excited. :)
> > > 
> > > As a quick summary, I followed the instructions provided at:
> > > 
> > > http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php
> > > 
> > > I skipped the video driver installation portion of the doc.
> > > 
> > > I then followed the instructions at:
> > > 
> > > http://www.kingcot.eclipse.co.uk/unichrome/
> > > 
> > > to get the unichrome drivers up and running.
> > > 
> > > Everything worked beautifully!
> > > 
> > > I'm now in the process of re-building my box without any of the 
> > > extra overhead of KDE/GNOME (also to try and see if I can document 
> > > everything cleanly for others).
> > > 
> > > A BIG thanks to everyone in the MythTV community.  I couldn't have 
> > > pulled this off without all the help here.
> > > 
> > > Ken.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > __________________________________________________________________
> > > ____ _______________________________________________
> > > mythtv-users mailing list
> > > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> 



______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email
______________________________________________________________________