[mythtv-users] ITX vs ATX for dual-DVB system

Jules Bean jules at jellybean.co.uk
Sat Oct 8 17:11:40 UTC 2005


Hi all,

I'm slowly getting up the nerve to make a hardware purchase and start
building my first myth box. So, I'm looking for some advice. I've read
the docs, and the howtos, but there are still a couple of decisions
I'd appreciate advice on.

The system will be for watching DVB-T digital broadcast TV, as well as
DVDs. This means that it presumably doesn't need to be terribly
powerful from a CPU point of view? No encoding or transcoding to do.
It will be in the living room, under the TV, so it has to be quiet and
look reasonable. No HDTV; I doubt we'll have HDTV DVB in the UK for a
few years.

One of the key branch points seems to be on the source of TV-OUT
support. On the one hand their are the cute little VIA boards with
built in TV-OUT, a graphics chip well supported under linux, in the
mini-ITX form factor. The problem with these is that I really want 2
tuners, and I don't much like the idea of USB tuners dangling off the
back of what is supposed to be a neat little machine. It *is* possible
to buy 2-card PCI risers, but I don't know if they are reliable, or if
they even fit inside the
cases. (http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalog/PCI_Risers.html)
(but only the most expensive epia, the EPIA SP has SATA, and I think I
probably want SATA?)

The other approach would be a standard mini-ATX motherboard, in a case
large enough to take at least low-profile PCI cards (the AverTV 771 is
low-profile, I believe). This would probably mean a socket 939 setup
with a cheap AMD64 chip and some expensive quiet fans, and an
expensive quiet case. But the sticker is the graphics card. I gather
that most people on this list are either using the TV-OUT abilities of
their Haupage PVR cards, or are using GeForce cards. A Haupage is
clearly pointless in a DVB-only setup, and I really, really, really
don't want to have an nvidia card, and nvidia's closed drivers, on the
box. The sensible option then seems to be a cheapo Radeon 9250 TV-OUT,
which is supported by the gatos drivers.

Does anybody have any feedback on this? It's the PCI riser I'm most
scared about, I don't understand PCI deeply enough at the hardware
level to know if they provide good enough performance for two DVB
tuners running in parallel.

Many thanks for any advice anyone can offer,

Jules Bean



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