[mythtv-users] What's the best HD frontend only hardware?

[Mike Isely]

On Fri, 29 Feb 2008, Nicolas Will wrote:

> 
> On Fri, 2008-02-29 at 13:57 +1300, Wade Maxfield wrote:
> > Brian Wood wrote:
> > > On Feb 28, 2008, at 5:33 PM, Richard Bronosky wrote:
> > > 
> > >> I'm looking to convert my FE+BE system to a BE only since it cannot
> > >> handle HD playback in a satisfactory manner.  In doing so I will be
> > >> building a dedicated FE from scratch.  If you had this opportunity
> > >> with today's hardware, what would you choose?
> > >>
> > >> Here is how I'm leaning:
> > >> 1. Must be able to handle (USA) OTA HD, aka: MPEG2 TS
> > >> 2. Must have DVI or HDMI video output.  (optionally via a ADD2
> > card)
> > >> 3. I would prefer it to be able to handle H.264 is in
> > >>
> > http://images.apple.com/movies/us/hd_gallery/gl1800/1080p/bbc-blue_m1080p.mov
> > >> 4. I would prefer onboard Intel video in gratitude for there
> > >> contributions to Xorg and OSS.
> > >> 5. I would prefer a low power consumption system.
> > >> 6. I would prefer a Micro-ITX or other SBC
> > >> 7. I would prefer to use a CF instead of an HDD.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Other than # 4 a Mac  Mini would come close, though I agree with
> > your  
> > > sentiment about Intel's video.
> > 
> > Mac Mini's have onboard Intel video.  The current C2D mini's use a 
> > GMA950 processor...
> 
> Keep in mind that the Intel driver still does not do any hw accelerated
> stuff for video. There is a branch for MPEG2, but still nothing for
> H.264.

I've just yesterday put online a new dedicated FE box that should do 
everything you are describing except perhaps the H.264 part.  (It's not 
that it won't; I just don't know if it can.)  But it has absolutely ZERO 
problems handling decode of a 1080i stream.  This is the barebones base 
I'm using for the FE:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856110065

To that I added an Intel E6420 Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of PC2-5300 
DDR2 memory.  I have an old analog tuner attached - but only for its IR 
receiver not the tuner portion.  The onboard GPU is an Intel GMA-950 and 
I have it HDMI-connected to a 47" 1080p LCD panel with the resolution 
set to 1920x1080.  I just now tested it on a livetv 1080i stream, and 
the system is hiccup free and using only 36% of the CPU.  I'm not using 
XvMC (doesn't work with Intel last time I tried) so it's just Xv.  But 
obviously right now I seem not to even need XvMC either.

For its system disk, there's well, no disk at all.  It network boots 
from the BE system and uses an NFS-mounted read-only root file system.  
It runs without swap.  The box has no special cooling beyond what it 
came with and it is TOTALLY silent.  I'm very happy with it.

Actually I have two FE systems.  The other system is older (P4 2.4GHz 
plus a nvidia 6200-class GPU via an AGP slot, and has only 512MB).  It 
is built with a circa-2004 Shuttle PC enclosure and is a slight bit 
noisier.  Rendering 1080i on that box chews up about 65% of the CPU.

Both machines seem to hover around 50 watts apiece.

Since the root file system is set up to be read-only, the two FEs 
actually share the same physical root file system.  They are 
differentiated through custom configuration stanzas in the DHCP server.  
In theory I can add another diskless front end just by dropping some 
bits of configuration in a few key places.  It's been an interesting 
exercise.  I only just finally put this all together in the past week; 
it's what I've had in mind all along.

  -Mike


-- 

Mike Isely
isely @ pobox (dot) com
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