[mythtv-users] EPIA SP8000E questions

[Gordon Morehouse]

Hello all,

I'm toying with the idea of setting up a MythTV system but after a few 
hours of reading I'm left with some hardware and software questions.

I'm considering the following setup. First I'll list my goals in 
descending order of priority, and then the hardware. This is to be used 
with a standard NTSC TV.

Goals:

1. LOW NOISE and low power/heat as there will not be the best ventilation.
2. Able to encode TV at 720x480ish and a good bitrate as I HATE digital 
artifacts. Able to play back same, of course.
3. Able to play back MP3 files from a mounted network filesystem. (SPDIF 
support?)
4. Able to play back DivX and MPEG-2 files from a mounted network file 
system.
5. Powerful enough to run MythGame

Hardware:

- VIA Epia SP8000E fanless w/256MB PC2700
- Fanless DC case
- Hauppage PVR250
- Samsung Spinpoint 120GB 8MB cache hard drive (quiet)

First, is the TV out port on the SP8000E supported by MythTV? I've found 
posts saying it isn't yet, and they're only a couple months old.

Second, does MythTV support the CN400 MPEG-4 acceleration, and how well 
does it work on the SP8000E? I may wish to eventually transcode saved 
shows to DivX and store them on a file server for repeat viewing (I'd 
likely do the encoding on my Windows machine, so encoding speed isn't an 
issue), which leads me to my next question.

Third, would there be any problem playing back both music and video from 
a network filesystem? I already have a file server on my network where I 
store all my MP3 files and some video.  I'd like to use it as a sort of 
nearline storage option for shows I want to keep. And how good is the 
music support anyway? I'm looking to avoid buying a Squeezebox2 here. Wink

Fourth, is the PVR250 going to get too hot for a fanless case? I've 
heard the 350 runs hot. I should only need a single encoder though, 
since the EPIA board has MPEG2 playback acceleration and TV out.

Fifth, does the SP8000E have optical SPDIF support? I've seen some 
conflicting posts.

FWIW, I'm very familiar with Debian. I've been running it in various 
applications since the late 90s.

Regards,
Gordon M.