[mythtv-users] Computer case recoomendations

[Robert Seaton]

Thanks for the IR info.

________________________________

From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Brett Kosinski
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 6:23 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Computer case recoomendations




	- Design flaw: the front plate (heavy brushed aluminium) is NOT
	grounded. In theory this should be ok because it's covered with
a 
	varnish so it's isolated from you, but in practice, the tiny
recessed
	bevels of the front panel buttons is not varnished (I guess the
bevel
	was made after the varnish had been applied).  In my carpeted
	living-room, the computer would crash -hard- every time my
finger got 
	close to the power button, whereas it had worked fine in my
computer
	lab.  After grounding the front panel, this problem disappeared.
	Unacceptable in such an expensive case, IMHO.


Weird, I've *never* had this problem.  I wonder if this was a bad unit? 



	- Design flaw: the LCD display area indeed has space so you can
add your
	own IR receiver, and it's not difficult to do.  However, the
glass 
	window in front of it is covered with IR-opaque paint. Duh...


Yeah, that ticked me off, too.  A bit of high-grit sandpaper solved that
problem, though.



	- Design flaw: the case ventilates extremely well, however it's
a bit
	noisier than I was led to believe by the ads.  Especially
noticeable
	during the quiet passages of a movie.  I'm thinking of
disconnecting 
	one of the two case fans (they're the source of the noise. My
heatsink
	fan is silent).


Well, keep in mind, the fans are multi-speed.  The first thing that
should be done is to slow them down (though, make sure to monitor case
temp, to make sure ventilation is still adequate).  At top speed, they
do put out a bit of noise (though they're still remarkably quiet),
however given their diameter, you can probably run them at low speed
without a problem. 



	- Annoyance: there's a HUGE volume-type button on the front of
the case
	that I can't use because there is no Linux driver for it and no
	information is available (that I could find)  to write one.
	


This works just fine in Linux.  It shows up as an imon IR receiver, and
so you can use lirc to receive events from it.  See this thread for
details: 

http://www.mythtvtalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3280

As for this:



	What remote, and IR setup are you using with this case? 
	
	


I grabbed a serial receiver from http://www.irblaster.info.  It's small
enough to fit behind the glass of the VFD, and the cable is long enough
that I could run it under the DVD player and into the case, where I
connected it to an onboard serial port (I scavanged a header connector
from an old serial port bracket). 

Brett. 
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