[mythtv-users] Via Epia sp and hdtv

James Dastrup jc at dastrup.com
Fri Feb 3 19:37:00 UTC 2006


On Friday 03 February 2006 12:29 pm, Shane wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> I am looking at setting up an ota hdtv machine using either
> the air2pc card or a pchdtv-3000 card.  I'd like the
> machine to be fanless so am looking at the Epia series of
> boxes.  Everything I've read about hdtv playback suggest a
> fairly fast cpu is required to playback hd content.
> However, the Via Epia sp-13000, though running at 1.3ghz
> has an mpeg/2 and an mpeg/4 decoder chip onboard.  I'm just
> wondering whether the mpeg/4 decoder is supported under
> Linux and Mythtv and whether this board is sufficient for
> hd capture and playback?
>

I don't have experience with the Via Epia, although I haven't heard 
anything _good_ about them with HDTV playback. Any particular reason 
you want it fanless? If noise is your concern, you can get a 
nearly-quiet machine going with a diskless front-end, upgraded CPU 
fan with voltage reducer, and a quiet power supply. I have a P4 3.0 
frontend that you almost have to put your ear on the case before you 
even know it's on.


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