[mythtv-users] Hiper HMC-2K53A-H2 First Impressions (Awesome HDfrontend)

[David George]

On 05/20/2007 11:21 AM, Brian wrote:
>> DVD works fine.  I just happened to have a Panasonic slot 
>> load for my mini HD frontend I was working on a couple of 
>> years ago.  The eject button lines up fine.
>>
>>     
>
> Now that firewire seems to be working flawlessly with one DCT-6200 (thanks
> Axel, SVN packages from Atrpms are working great!) I'm seriously considering
> one of these as a front-end. I'm wondering what size DVD drive it'll accept.
> Will any 5.25" slot load DVD drive fit? The specs show one 3.5" only. Is
> that for the internal HDD? 
>   
It will only accept 5.25" low-profile slot-load DVD drives.  (These are 
laptop size drives except they are slot-load.)  Panasonic seem to be 
best as the eject button lines up with the button on the case.  Some 
people have reported that Pioneer drive eject buttons do not line up.  I 
happened to have a Panasonic from an old project so it worked out for 
me.  The hard drive is a 3.5" regular internal hard drive.

As an update to my first impressions.  This machine does have the ALC833 
spdif issue with at least Alsa 1.0.14rc1.  There is a relatively easy 
workaround for it: 
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Intel_HD_Audio_-_Realtek_ALC88x .  
I was able to get the built in volume control working on spdif with softvol.

I still don't have the VFD working and right now not holding out much 
hope for it.  Maybe someone with a little more time on their hands could 
take a look at it.

There is an annoying error message about a USB port constantly being 
added to the logs.

Overall it works very well.  Also an update on CPU usage.  I am running 
an AMD x2 4600+ with cool-and-quiet.  The performance figures I gave in 
my first email were with the CPU running at 1.8GHZ (normal speed for 
this CPU is 2.4GHz).  So a 3600+ will be plenty for showing HD content.  
I still recommend the 65w or 65nm processors (yes, some 90nm are 65w).  
Keep it cool, because you need a low-profile fan/heatsink assembly and 
they can be louder than their larger/slower fan counterparts.  BTW, when 
viewing SD or doing other miscellaneous things the CPU scales down to 
1GHZ for even more heat/power savings.

-- 
David