[mythtv-users] MythTV Frontend upgrade

[Doug Young]

I built my recent frontends using the Antec Minuet 350 case
(http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?item=82766).  The dimensions are:
3.8"(H) x 12.8"(W) x 16.8"(D).  This fits nicely above my sound-system
amplifier...it's a little deep, but fits in my cabinet.

For the rest of the hardware, I went with:
mobo: ASUS M3N78-VM
chip: dual core AMD ... don't remember which one.
ram: Crucial 2GB Kit (2x1) <- Use the extra ram for a ramdisk.
random sata dvd burner.
4GB Thumb drive for main HD

Contrary to the info on the ASUS website, with the newer BIOS you can
set the built-in NVidia 8300 to use 512M of ram, so it should be able
to run VDPAU (*cough* new nvidia drivers, sorry) as necessary...I
haven't tried, though, as I don't have an HD source yet ;-).  I do
know it's perfectly capable of doing sound over HDMI (see
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/376358#376358 ).  I
currently have two of these frontends, and will likely be building a
couple more in the next few months they work so well!  With no real
hard-drive, they're dead quiet, and they look reasonable in my stereo
rack.  Great combo!

You can probably get away without using the proprietary drivers, but I
would expect NV to support this card for quite some time, so I'd go
ahead and use them since they're there.  Use the processor to do
something more important, like commercial flagging!  lol.

As far as distribution goes, I chose mythbuntu because I already run
ubuntu on my work machine (was the only distro that supported my vpn
client and my wireless out of the box) and on my eee-pc (actually,
easy-peasy: an ubuntu release specifically designed for netbooks) and
was searching for some consistency in my installs.  Now all my unix
boxen (3 laptops, 2 desktops, 3 frontends, 1 backend) are running
basically the same distro, which makes my life a tad easier.  The
weekly builds of -fixes and -trunk are definitely a plus, as is the
near seamless integration of the repositories into the mainstream
Ubuntu.  It made setting up my desktops and laptops as part-time
frontends a breeze!  I doubt they're unique on either point, but I
must say that this upgrade to mythbuntu was relatively painless.  My
data points span years, and my linux flavor choice is often driven by
outside factors, so it's hard to say if that's a maturity thing or
something special about the distro...

-- 
Doug

On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Axel Thimm <Axel.Thimm at atrpms.net> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 11:09:54PM -0400, Rich West wrote:
>> Does anyone have any recommendations?  Also, frankly, I'm tired of the
>> Fedora release cycle.. I don't need it for these frontend-only systems
>> and while it tends to fix some things, it also tends to break other
>> things (hence, the predicament I am in now). CentOS would be great if it
>> has the necessary driver support for current hardware and the repo is
>> reliable (I seem to recall ATrpms's once having CentOS as a beta or test
>> repo).
>
> ATrpms has been supporting RHEL5/CentOS5/SL5 for quite some time
> now. The builds for mythtv and the supporting software are the same as
> for Fedora, so you will not find many suprises, and the update
> frequency is the same, e.g. if there is a new mythtv rpm release for
> Fedora there will also be one for the enterprise siblings.
>
> You will have to check on the hardware support though, an area where
> RHEL (and thus CentOS and other clones) have been lacking vendor
> support was/is the capture part. In most cases the video4linux kmdls
> will help you and offer the hardware support you need, but you better
> check beforehand - OTOH if it doesn't work on CentOS5, you can still
> go Fedora 11 and wait for CentOS6.
> --
> Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net
>
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