[mythtv-users] Minimum hardware recomendation

[Allen Edwards]

On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 11:11 AM, jedi <jedi at mishnet.org> wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 10:27:51AM -0700, Jim Stichnoth wrote:
> > On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 10:07 AM, Allen
> > Edwards<allen.p.edwards at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > My daughter told me my father's day gift was that she was moving out
> (have
> > > you heard of boomerang kids?).  She was kidding but had heard that was
> a
> > > recommended gift.  We went to her new place yesterday and got OTA
> broadcast
> > > from her Menlo Park apartment with and old UHF antenna I have had for
> 50
> > > years and a single dipole at Channel 7 taped to her balcony.
>  Everything
> > > comes in very strong.  Now she needs her own MythTV system.  She also
> needs
> > > something cheaper than buying cable w/DVR for a year.  Perhaps that
> cannot
> > > be done...
> > > I know with the Atom-ION systems things are changing fast so perhaps it
> is a
> > > good time to ask this.  I looked at newegg and realized I don't know
> > > anything about these solutions.  What kind of power supply, case, etc.
>   Can
> > > you get a barebones or complete version of these systems?  Lots of
> > > questions.  I looked on Tom's hardware and didn't find anything useful.
> > >  Perhaps someone on this list can help.
> > > Allen
>
>    Since this is an MPEG2 based system for "someone else" perhaps a VDPAU
> approach isn't the best idea. Anything with good xvmc support should be
> more than adequate for playback. If you aren't planning on transcoding,
> requirements for the rest of the system should be pretty meagre.
>
>   An i945 or nv7x00 based system might make more sense at this point.
>
>   Without the HDPVR, which is driven by the fact that I have cable and
> would like to tune in to HD channels, I wouldn't personally see the need
> for VDPAU myself.
>
>   My i945 and nv7x00 systems do well enough for the OTA HD stuff.
>
> [deltia]
>
>   After the reviews of the early ION systems I would tend to be worried
> about lack of CPU power should the need arise. You never know extra CPU
> hungry sort of thing might present itself.


Could you be more specific about what i945 or nv7x00 system you are
suggesting?

I like the idea of a low power fanless system and she doesn't want to spend
a lot of money on this.  VDPAU is both intriguing and frightening as it is
not released and perhaps not either stable or simple to set up.  It took me
about 40 hours to get my first myth box running right.  Now I can do one in
an hour -- but only if it is just like my last one, Mythbuntu 8.04.  Much of
the 40 hours was because the PC would not boot with the drivers installed in
the order that Mythbuntu wanted to install them but that is another story.
 The point is, I am pretty good with computers but have never done a compile
of a Linux system and really have no idea how difficult that is to learn how
to do.

So, how difficult is it to make a VDPAU system work?

Allen
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