[mythtv-users] Best Motherboard for Front End HD Entertainment

Doug Young goofdad at gmail.com
Fri Oct 19 19:33:40 UTC 2007


On 10/19/07, Matthew Dansereau <matthew at dansereau.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Many PC's are too bulkey / Noisy for the Living Room
>
> I have seen a few posts about Low profile cases, etc.
> I haven't seen any posts on the best Mother Boards all in one / chipset /
> firewire, etc.
>
> I am looking for a good motherboard that has most of the compatible
> components with Linux.

That probably means you want a built in nVidia chipset so it has full
compatibility

> Firewire is very important.  I belive that a lot of AV will be leaning on
> IEEE.  I have heard rumors that the IEEE ports are enabled on a few cable
> boxes including Comcast's.

Honestly, that depends.  You talk about separating backend and
frontend, and if that's an option, your -backend- needs firewire, but
it doesn't have to be a motherboard that fits in a low-profile case...

> I would consider a single backend with raid and 4-10 tuners (and store out
> of site) and then front ends / thin clients at every tv eventually.
>
> I'm thinking short term it is probably better to find a Linux/mythtv-HD
> friendly motherboard.  USB QAM tuners seem to be one way to deal with lack
> of add-on-card-space.

I'm looking at the Biostar TF7050-M2 motherboard.  It has oodles of
builtin USB ports, HDMI, S-Video for SD out, an S/PDIF header, etc.
The only thing lacking is Firewire support.  My backend, however,
supports firewire, so I don't need it on my frontend.  If you search
gossamer, several people have reported good experiences with this
board.

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138061
-- 
Doug


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