[mythtv-users] Acer Revo 1600 success story

Timbo mythtv at koomba.net
Sun Jan 17 03:47:30 UTC 2010


I just got my Acer Revo 1600 working with my pre-existing single MBE and 
thought I would share with the list, for others and myself if I need to 
refer back to it. I didn't find a clear overall guide and I ended up 
following a several various guide's advice. Hopefully someone in my same 
situation will find this and save the surfing.

I'm trying to get into HD recording and playback and wanted to add a HD 
capable FE to the system and a HDHomerun. The Revo appears to be working 
fine, the HDHomerun still needs some attention. Got it yesterday, quite 
small, even compared to the mini-itx system it replaced. It's quiet! My 
old system was a noise beast compared to this. Plugged it up and booted 
it directly into the TV on HDMI with no issues into pre-installed XP. XP 
worked with HDMI out of the box outputting 1080p, had to set TV to HDMI 
mode 2 or something to get the image to not be larger than the screen. 
Had to also set audio output to HDMI per included instructions for sound 
playback. Decided to keep XP since I didn't need the space for a FE only 
system.

Used Unetbootin to create mythbuntu 9.10 boot USB stick. - fairly self 
explanatory, used mythbuntu x86 iso to create it
Used GParted to repartition disk to preserve XP (didn't know mythbuntu 
has repartitioning built in). - again fairly intuitive
Installed with USB drive after using F12 for boot select menu.
Upgraded memory by adding a 2nd 1GB stick. Remove one screw on base 
where stand slides into. The break was not cleanly between the black 
side and the white center, trust me, I tried hard until I search for a 
youtube clip. The break point was along the groove along the face-side 
edge of the white center. The non-power button side is the one to 
remove. Memory pops in at an angle and THEN swings down onto the clips.
Set video memory from AUTO to 512 in BIOS after the memory upgrade.
MythTV sound didn't work without fiddling. First used mixer from menu to 
enable IEC958 (can also been done from terminal and command alsamixer, 
arrow over and hit m to get 00 to show unmuted). That didn't work, no 
sound until I went into playback options and selected HDMI output for 
audio, not sure if the mixer changes were ultimately needed as well.
Set to use VDPAU by going to Settings->Settings->TV->Playback and a few 
screens over selected 'VDPAU High Quality' from CPU selection.
StreamZap PC remote needed its usual fiddling with and setting up NFS 
shares for Pictures, Music, and MythVideo and I was done.

All in all, impressed. I'm sure I got somethings not exactly right in 
the above description, like menu locations, but it should get you close. 
Now it's on to getting the actual HD playback. So far MythTV and HDHR 
are not talking nicely to each other.

Did I miss anything others that use the Revo?

-Tim


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