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PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:14 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:38 pm
Posts: 249
Location: Sweden
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H
CPU: AMD ATHLON X2 4850E 2.5 GHZ 512KB 1000MHZ BOXED S-AM2
RAM: CORSAIR 1GB VS DDR2 PC5300 667MHZ CL5 (2X512MB)
Case: ANTEC NSK2480-EC HTPC-CHASSI M-ATX
GA: ASUS GEFORCE 7200GS 256MB SILENT HDTV DVI PCI-E
HD: Old Samsung spinpoint 120GB SATA

There is little on hardware that can be purchased new these days, so heres some.

I've had stability issues twice with ASUS, so although there are plenty of recommendations, I decided to try Gigabyte instead.

With this setup, the installation was tier 1 - it just worked - although I use this machine only as a frontend. Following these instructions: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=FrontendOnlyInstall you first install the complete package, which went well, and then remove the backend, so I haven't tested running a backend thoroughly on it. The CPU checks in on about 32 deg Celsius - the coolest I've ever heard of (45W) and two 120mm fans on the lowest speed setting are so quiet that I can't tell the machine is on - putting my ear next to the box. Any noise comes from the DVD player. Optical audio works great, although I was unable to control the volume with the Hauppauge remote. However, my 18-year-old son managed to do that and I still wonder if there really was nothing to it more than a reboot or if he just keeps the procedure a secret.

Much to my surprise, it's not capable of decoding H.264/mpeg4 - the stuff we use for HD over here. It hesitates and uses 130% CPU. Performance is similar to my Shuttle frontend. Hauppauge says it takes 3,2 GHz minimum to do HD, but that's with their software - obviously - and they are not clear with what processor. To my knowledge, only P4:s have ever reached that clock speed. I checked Tom's hardware for a modern comparison and this CPU checked in above a 3,2 GHz P4 in Xvid conversion - the closest match I could think of in mpeg4 decoding. Now I really wonder if there is a CPU on the planet that can handle European HD :?: Maybe a P4 extreme edition with liquid nitrogen cooling? Clock speed does seem to make a difference and parallelism not. :o Anyway, we enthusiasts aren't known to spare any effort... And the nitrogen might help keep the room cool with all that gear anyway. :wink:
Edit:Apparently one can check here:http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/HD_Playback_Reports

I tried with the onboard graphics adapter and it was unable to start X with the "respawning too fast" error. After changing /etc/X11/xorg.conf device statement from driver "ati" to driver "vesa" it would start, but the framerate would be too low (like somewhere between 5-10 frames per sec). If I understand correctly, vesa is a very generic, unoptimized, compatibility mode. That said, this pretty much sums up all my knowledge in the area and maybe it's possible to get it to work with better knowledge and more elbow grease - I just settled for the nVidia card I planned for in the first place, since I've heard it works. :)

Cheers,
/Chris

_________________
LinHES R8.6.1
BE: AMD64X4, 4GB, Hauppauge usb tuners
FE1: Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4, nVidia GT640
FE2: Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H, AthlonX2 4850E 2.5 GHz, 1GB, ASUS GEFORCE 7200GS 256MB
FE3: Asus Eeebox410


Last edited by cahlfors on Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:23 am, edited 1 time in total.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:54 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:55 am
Posts: 98
[quote="cahlfors"]Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H
CPU: AMD ATHLON X2 4850E 2.5 GHZ 512KB 1000MHZ BOXED S-AM2

I tried with the onboard graphics adapter and it was unable to start X with the "respawning too fast" error. After changing /etc/X11/xorg.conf device statement from driver "ati" to driver "vesa" it would start, but the framerate would be too low (like somewhere between 5-10 frames per sec). If I understand correctly, vesa is a very generic, unoptimized, compatibility mode. That said, this pretty much sums up all my knowledge in the area and maybe it's possible to get it to work with better knowledge and more elbow grease - I just settled for the nVidia card I planned for in the first place, since I've heard it works. :)

/Chris[/quote

I just started setting up my new HD frontend with the same motherboard. I got past the respawning error, so hopefully this helps you. First I downloaded and installed the latest ATI driver for that chipset (ati-driver-installer-8-7-x86.x86_64.run). This got me great video, but for some reason whenever I started either the mythfrontend or the setup from the installer, the video went crazy (video overlay problems, I think). So I stepped back a couple revisions on the driver and that did the trick. I am using ati-driver-installer-8-4-x86.x86_64.run and it works great. I have HDMI working beautifully out to my 55" Sony.

Unfortunately I am a bit stuck on being able to finish this install as the olympics are still on and the wife will kill me if I do anything to interupt them. But so far, it seems to be working very well.


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