[mythtv-users] Barebone myth tv nodes?

[Todd Duffin]

I am running an EPIA M1000 and am very happy with it.  It is an ITX form 
factor.  Has everything you are talking about.  VGA, SVideo out, Analog 
audio out (and digital out too!), LAN, USB, Firewire, IR, 1000mhz CPU...the 
whole deal.  Running standard TV resolutions I am running about 40% CPU at 
playback.  Since the CPU does SSE so I think the CPU is greatly relieved of 
heavy lifting.  (MMX doesn't help you do video (integer math)...I think 
3dnow does since it is a floating point accelerator)

M1000 MB+CPU (glued on) = $150
or I bet you can easily get by with ML800 MB+CPU = $100
512mb DDR = $50
80gig Seagate 2bel HD (if you are lazy like me) = $50
(Sweet very tiny case) Morex Cubid 3688 = $90 (although ITX will go in 
FlexATX, MicroATX or ATX case if you don't mind bigger)
Pictures don't do this case justice: 
http://www.aone.zen.co.uk/imagesproduct/miniitx/large/csmorcupid3688b.jpg
...Yes it takes a laptop DVD drive (or none)...this thing is tiny.  I am 
pretty sure this case gives you 1 full height PCI slot; it has a rise to 
turn the card sideways...but don't quote me on that.

When shopping for an EPIA make sure you know what the back panel looks like. 
There are a zillion flavors and many don't have SVideo.  (Every one has LAN, 
Audio, USB...etc)

This thing runs so will I need to make it my main front end and move my 
current backend/frontend to the garage or something.  The Digital Audio + 
SVideo are perfect for the tv room with a "real" amp.  I don't think they 
would make a great backend unless you have an MPEG2 capture card and 
transcode it down later (non-real-time).

Todd

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jack Trout" <witmore1 at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 12:30 AM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Barebone myth tv nodes?


> On 8/20/05, Robert Denier <denier at umr.edu> wrote:
>> Has anyone seen or figured out the lowest cost way to get a bare mythtv
>> node up?  I was thinking of setting up myth around the house and what
>> I'm looking for is something like
>>
>> 1.5GHZ + cpu
>> Integrated sound
>> Integrated video with tv out on motherboard
>> Integrated network
>>
>> All of the previous need to work with myth obviously, including doing
>> NFS booting via the network.
>>
>> In a perfect world it would be a tiny case as well, but somehow I
>> suspect to get all these things the price might get more expensive.
>>
>> A shuttle or Asus Pundit might be possibilities, but both were more
>> expensive than what I had in mind.  If anyone sees some refurbished
>> motherboards that are decent that might be idea.  The sticking points
>> seem to be getting the tv-out to work as well as the nfs booting off the
>> network.
>>
>> -Robert
>>
>
> Well Robert, I was tired of sitting in the basement to watch all my
> recorded shows and such, so I built an inexpensive frontend only
> system. now its not yet as quiet as I like, I am still contemplating
> how I am going to fix that either make the system diskless, or just
> find a quiet hard drive. Heres what I have done and my costs,
>
> I did blow money on an ebay auction for a processor, I tried using the
> livecd Knoppmyth for a frontend, and it didnt seem up to speed, and
> have tried on my laptop which is a p3 850 with 512mb ram, and it wasnt
> either, so I started bidding on ebay, when I thought that I might have
> better luck just installing fedoracore on it, and running it from the
> hard drive instead of the cd, might improve my chances, but the bid I
> placed on ebay didnt get outbid before I figured out that with the
> 733, I could play divx movies, and live and recorded tv encoded from
> pvr250s I hope that down the line when I start playing with mame and
> the like, the extra 266mhz will help in some way.. I recently got my
> remote setup, and the wife is watching movies on it as I speak,
>
> and I was worried about tvout, especially as this machine only has
> PCI, which I also didnt think about during the purchasing process,
> especially because I already had a fanless GF4 ti4200 AGP, but the
> very nice thing is with the 7124 nVidia drivers and this MX4000 TVout
> was as simple as making the svideo/composite the only connected
> monitor adapter.
>
> Dell GX110 Small form factor
> 733mhz p3 (upgraded to p3 1ghz)
> 128megs pc133
> 10gig hard drive
> floppy
> cdrom
> onboard nic
> 2x pci slots
> onboard video (intel 810)
>
> Cost...... 89.99
> +   6.62 Tax
> +  16.00 2x8$ computer show admission
> = 112.61 Total cost of aquistion
>
> nVidia GF MX4000 PCI New from Newegg
> Cost + S/H 35.99
>
> Intel Pentium 3 1ghz processor Used from Ebay
> Cost + S/H 30.50
>
> ATI Remote Wonder RF w/reciever USB
> Cost + S/H 30.50
>
> Current running cost 209.6
>
> Parts Used from scrap pile in house
>
> Generic Stick of PC133 Ram
> CMedia Sound Card (the system I bought without checking, did not have
> onboard sound installed, this card has spid/f out anyway, although not
> enabled as of yet)
> KeyBoard and Mouse
> regular DVD Rom *
> Fedora Core 3 dvd **
>
> (* the small form factor case use all normal componets except for a
> modified laptop style optical drive, so during OS Install the case was
> left open to use a desktop dvdrom because I hate switching disks
> during an OS install, and I already had a burned copy of FC3 on DVD)
> (** this DVD was downloaded legally from the Fedora Core community
> using Bittorrent. Fedora Core was chosen for 2 reasons, My previous
> familiarity of RedHat, and Jarod Wilsons and AxelThimms excellent
> instructions and binary support of that platform)
>
>
> Parts not required to complete but to look nice
> Small form factor PS/2 or USB Keyboard preferably with intergrated
> pointing device for troubleshooting and web browsing
> (currently using full sized black keyboard, and a laptop mini ps2 
> trackball)
>
> small under shelf/desk keyboard tray to conceal connected keyboard
>
>
> YMMV
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