[mythtv-users] Intel-Powered ODROID-H2

[Jerry]

On Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 8:47 AM Doug Lytle <support at drdos.info> wrote:

> This might be something to look into for a Myth Frontend.
>
>
> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-ODROID-H2-Benchmarks
>

I received my H2 a couple of days ago.  The first batch sold out in 24
hours and they expect to have another early next year.  Intel has a
shortage of the processors used so they have to wait.  Odroid did not
anticipate such an enthusiastic response, unfortunately.

The only real snag I ran into was that the screw to mount the M.2 drive was
not included.  Luckily for me, I am a "screw miser" and I just searched
around for a small one that fit.  I believe it is an M2 3mm screw but I
would double check that.  I tried measuring it by eye with a ruler.  I
think calipers are really in order here and I do not have a pair.  Amazon
has the screw if you're willing to shell out 5 bucks.  The first few screws
that I tried were not metric but I found one that mounted the heat sink
over the M.2 slots on my main computer's motherboard that fit, albeit about
6mm long.  I did note that ASUS failed to include screws for both of its
M.2 drives as well!  After that, I used the screw to compare with the
rest.  All in all, it only took a half hour.  :(  But it's done.

Seriously, though.  What if I hadn't had the damn screw?  You can't exactly
buy one around here, with it being metric and the USA not using a proper
standard.  I would have driven all over the place to find a computer shop
(good luck in this day and age of the Internet).

With the M.2 drive mounted, I just had to figure out how to put the acrylic
case together.  There weren't instructions but there are diagrams on their
forums so that was mostly painless.

It powered up and I installed Arch Linux with a USB stick.  I had to use
the UEFI install.  I might have gotten it to work with the MBR installation
but since the USB stick was recognized as UEFI, I went with that.  That's a
first for me but the instructions on Arch's website were very clear.  Those
installing Ubuntu would have an easier time, I'm sure.

The only thing I changed in the BIOS was the time.  I left everything else
alone.

I have not tried it as a mythtv frontend as that's not why I purchased the
machine.  I can tell you that the performance I've seen is very
satisfactory.  I'm not sure about video performance as I've only run a
terminal on my monitor at this point.  If there is any interest, I could
try loading version 30 on it and trying it on my monitor.  That's not a big
deal.  I'm not as picky as a lot of you videophiles so I may miss minor
distortions.

The machine has a heat sink so it's silent.  There is space for a 90? mm
fan and I might do that down the road but it may be overkill.  Still,
additional cooling is always good.  There are 5 LED status lights and 3 of
them stay lit most of the time.  I haven't figured out exactly which of
them does what yet.  The documentation is a little sparse but the staff at
Odroid is very attentive to questions regarding their products.

Does anyone have any questions?  I'll try to answer them.

Thanks,
Jerry
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