[mythtv-users] nf-m2 motherboard alternatives?

[Shane Hickey]

Ok.  Here's my situation.  I built this system:

1X - Antec NSK2400 Case -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129014
1X - winTV-pvr 500 
1X - winTV-pvr 350 
1X abit NF-M2 motherboard -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127013
1X AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ processor -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103751 
2X 1G Memory 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134009

I apparently didn't think of everything before I built it, though, because when I got the board I realized that it has only VGA and DVI outs.  But, my TV is a Sony Vega 27" flatscreen and it only has S-video, component, compposite, etc inputs.  No VGA or DVI inputs.

Well, I was going to bite the bullet and get a new LCD tv.  But, my entertainment center only has a little less than 31" of width available.  So, I could only get a 26" LCD tv to fit in there and I have a feeling that 26" of flatscreen will look smaller.  And, I'm an American, by god! ;) Plus, TVs are expensive and I'm only generally watching DVDs and non-HD tv.  So, it seems like I should be able to live with this TV.

Also, I haven't been able to get more than 2 channels of audio from the SPDIF output of my nf-m2 board.  Using alsa's speaker-test -c6, I only get front left and right.  I'm reading all sorts of other nightmare talk about the hda-intel driver, so I'm nervous that it's going to be hell.

So, for those of you still reading.  I would love to solve these problems using less then $300.  So, if I can get another micro ATX board with S-video out and a known-to-be-working SPDIF multi-channel output, I would jump on it right now.  Or, I guess another option is to a) use the IVTV s-video output, but on my old setup I remember that this doesn't look too great or b) get some sort of VGA/DVI->s-video converter.  

My only quality requirement is that it looks better than the IVTV s-video output off of the PVR350 that I used to be using.

Thanks much, in advance, for any ideas you might have!

Thanks,

Shane

-- 
Shane Hickey <shane at howsyournetwork.com>: Network/System Consultant
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