[mythtv-users] EPIA SP8000E questions

[Lee Koloszyc]

Gordon Morehouse wrote:

>
> Second, does MythTV support the CN400 MPEG-4 acceleration, and how 
> well does it work on the SP8000E?

 From what I have read the MPEG-4 acceleration wasn't supported in the 
Linux Drivers yet, though I could be wrong.

>
> Third, would there be any problem playing back both music and video 
> from a network filesystem?

There shouldn't be, I have wireless G and it plays audio and video over 
the network fine.

> 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.
>
I would go with PVR150 as it is cheaper and the same card.  Not sure how 
hot it gets.

> Fifth, does the SP8000E have optical SPDIF support? I've seen some 
> conflicting posts.
>
It has a coaxial SPDIF connector on the board (that is also is 
switchible to composite video out).
It also has a connector on the board for digital out, not sure if there 
is an opitical connector for that or not.
I would also go for at least 512MB of memory.  My machine (PIII, Gentoo) 
seems to use about 450MB on average.

I'm also looking into the Epia's as frontends and building a heftier box 
for backend recording/reencoding duties.
Now if I could just find a good cheap Mini-ITX case with built-in IR 
that plugs into the Epia board.

Lee