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Antec NSK 2480/ASUS M2NPV-VM HD frontend/backend
http://forums.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17411
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Author:  hari [ Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:54 am ]
Post subject:  Antec NSK 2480/ASUS M2NPV-VM HD frontend/backend

Video type: HDTV / SDTV
Type of system: combined front- and back-end
Noise level: I can barely hear it from 5 feet away

CASE: Antec NSK 2480 [$99.99]
PSU: Included with case
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS M2NPV-VM [$89.99]
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO4000DDBOX - Retail [$65.99]
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR800D2N5K2/1G [$36.99]
CPU HEATSINK: Scythe SCMNJ-1000 80mm Sleeve "NINJA MINI" CPU Cooler [$29.99]
NORTHBRIDGE HEATSINK: Included with motherboard
CD/DVD-RW: Pioneer 18X DVD±R DVD Burner Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model DVR-112D [$29.99]
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3400620AS 400GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive [$99.99], 2 additional 300 GB Seagate IDE drives
GRAPHICS CARD: Included with motherboard
SOUNDCARD: Included with motherboard
TUNER CARD: HD HomeRun, Hauppage PVR 350
REMOTE CONTROL: Hauppage 350

Some of the parts were scavenged from my old Myth Box, which is now attached to the second TV as a slave backend (it has a PVR 150 on it). I'm using two ZyXEL PLA-400 HomePlug AV Powerline Ethernet Adapters to connect the two boxes. I'm getting speeds of up to 6 MB/s, which is nowhere near the advertised 200 Mbps, but it's good enough to stream HD video, which is all I need.

If you buy this case and motherboard, install as much as you can on the motherboard before putting it in the case. In particular, the secondary IDE controller is impossible to connect if you've already put the motherboard in the case. The CPU fan is quite large and was also difficult to install in the case.

I had a hard time installing the PVR 350 as well. There are little slots in the bottom of the case to accomodate the part of the PCI card with all of the external connectors. That slot was misaligned with the PVR 350's notch, so I ended up taking a screwdriver and widening the slot so the PVR 350's notch would go through. I know that's a poor description, but if someone else is doing the same thing, I think you'll understand what I mean.

It is connected to a Vizio VX37L via DVI to HDMI cable. I had to add this modeline to my xorg.conf:

ModeLine "ATSC-720-72p" 88.992 1280 1320 1376 1648 720 722 728 750

And to correct for overscan in Utilities/Setup->Setup->Appearance:

o GUI Width: 1196
o GUI height: 678
o GUI X offset: 44
o GUI Y offset: 24

The machine is very quiet with the case fans set to low. If they are set to high, they are quite loud. The CPU temps seem to peak at about 35 C.

The only problem I've found so far is that the Myth volume control has no effect. I have to use the TV's volume control.

Author:  mogator88 [ Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:41 am ]
Post subject: 

Thanks for including the Vizio modeline, so many of those TV's out there and so little info for them.

Are you connecting via DVI or VGA?
Are you using XvMC?
You have a mix of SATA and PATA/IDE, where are you putting /myth/tv?

Thanks!

Author:  hari [ Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:42 am ]
Post subject: 

mogator88 wrote:
Are you connecting via DVI or VGA?
I use this DVI to HDMI cable.
Quote:
Are you using XvMC?
No - at least I don't think so. I didn't specifically enable it.
Quote:
You have a mix of SATA and PATA/IDE, where are you putting /myth/tv?
It's on the SATA drive. The IDE drives are mounted as /disk01 and /disk02, and I've copied a lot of the files off of /myth/tv and symlinked them. I didn't want to create a big LVM drive, and once myth 0.21 comes out, I can combine everything into one storage group. The slave backend has another 60 GB that I can use too.

The /myth/tv, /disk01, and /disk02 partitions are all NFS exported to the slave backend.

Author:  hari [ Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:23 pm ]
Post subject: 

It was a dumb idea to export /myth/tv to the slave backend (SBE). I ended up with a lot of stuttering on recordings. I now let the SBE record to its own /myth/tv and then when I play them from the frontend, they are accessible. I initially didn't know this was how slave backends worked.

Author:  falinskip [ Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Check Duplexing on NIC's

Hi there,

If you are only getting 6 MBs on you NIC cards, you are more than likely having a duplexing problem (resulting in retransmissions). These retransmissions will cause a delay in your transmissions of data.

You may (depending on your Hub or Switch that you are going into, change the duplexing from 100/Full to 100/Half) or such. But before doing any of that please check your Ethernet cables (when I would make home made cables I would sometimes run into this problem).

Good Luck

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