[mythtv-users] Advice on a silent PC/Mini ITX for DVI and DVB-T (maybe -S)

[Nicholas Piper]

Chad,

On Mon, 31 Mar 2008, Chad wrote:

> >  Does anyone have a recommendation for a Mini ITX motherboard which
> >  would have DVI output, is cheap (so slow is OK), but has a supported
> >  hardware mpeg2 decoder to make up for the lack of overall CPU power?
> 
> If you can find one, the Commell LV-667D makes a nice option in this area.

Thanks for this suggestion. I can't find a D variant stocked anywhere
yet. I've written to a vendor to see if they can help. Ideally, I'd
want the E8 variant too (800 Mhz Eden, fanless) I believe.

I can find the regular one:
http://www.icp-epia.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=101 to
which I could add a Mini-AGP DVI card
http://www.bvm-store.com/ProductDetail.asp?fdProductId=156 ? Is that
how Mini-AGP works, or would then I not be using the Unichrome
processor anymore? 

> If size is not that much of an issue I'd strongly suggest you look at
> something MicroATX instead or even look at an Intel-based mini-ITX
> system (though that really will kill your above mentioned budget).
> The VIA systems, for lack of a nicer term, suck, due to lack of real
> help from Via that is actually usable to the vast majority of Linux
> users.  I've got an SP13000 and a Commell LV-667T that are fairly
> useless for anything HD or mpeg4.  I've done a lot of work to get them
> to the usable point they are at right now, and cannot imagine how much
> effort would be involved in getting them to actually do the mpeg4
> acceleration that VIA claims or fully work with MythTV and HDTV.

Your LV-667T has a CN700, which apparently can do 2048x2048 mpeg2 -
http://wiki.openchrome.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=HardwareCaveats
which sounds 'HD'?

 Regards,

 Nick