[mythtv-users] New Myth Front End

[R. G. Newbury]

Joshua Lewis wrote:
> I want to put together a myth Front end. I will also be using it as front
> end for another project called plutohome.
>
> I found several Mobos that were small and some fanless. But I am new to
> linux and don't know where to find the best resources for supported
> hardware.
>
> Will one of these suffice for TV-Out?
>
> TV out - VT1622, VT1622A, VT1623, Chrontel, CH7011
>
> I am trying to use one of the small Mini-ITX mobos. Has anyone had any
> experiance good or bad? I would like to make a wise decision as I will be
> buying like five of them for my house.
>
>
>   
The Via motherboards are great, IF you are willing to accept that there 
are restrictions on their capabilities.
The SP13000 is about the latest board and chipset. It has the VT1623 TV 
out chip and will do (it says... I cannot check) 1024 x 1024 output to 
TV. I know it does Standard Definition quite well. I generally watch on 
a monitor at 1024x768. I know nothing about the Chrontel or CH7011.

A new nano-itx motherboard from Via is listed as having the VT1625 
chipset which is supposed to be able to do full 1980x1080 HD output om 
hardware. These boards are supposed to be available.

Note that this board would have everything you need for a frontend, but 
is extremely limited in expansion capabilities and has only a single 
mini-PCI card slot... so no backend use (without an adapter).

However, you will also need to get this into a case and get a power 
supply for it... but it will work from a laptop brick: about 10 watts max!
And whether or not it meets your needs could be impossible to tell from 
the specs alone.
I would not buy 5 at once. I do intend to buy *one* in the near future 
to check out its capabilities. At the very worst, it will make a nice 
small file server or wbe server!

Geoff

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       R. Geoffrey Newbury			
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