[mythtv-users] YAMP Again (Yet Another Media Player, again)

[Brian Wood]

On Wednesday 24 March 2010 09:45:01 am Greg Oliver wrote:

> I was digging through the myca site from earlier, and noticed the 2
> versions.  Do you have the white or ion version?  I am kind of scared
> to try one since digging through their forums is nothing short of
> reading complaints of lack of support.  I really do not care about
> that if the product works well though.  Both models seem video capable
> though, and the Sigma 8635 seems capable as well..

I have the "White" version, the ION wasn't available back when I ordered it. I 
ordered when it initially become available, over a year ago.

I have no need for support, so that hasn't been a problem. The machine "just 
works", I can't imagine what all those people need support for.

It's a "Networked Media Tank", which I think is similar to the Popcorn Hour. 
It has a lot of built-in menu-driven access to online media sources, nice but 
I don't use it that way very often, though I have discovered several online 
video services I was unaware of.

I don't use the included BitTorrent client, if I want anything off the net I 
get it from Usenet, much faster and more reliable, and probably safer, 
especially if you use SSL.

It's a Linux machine, initially I was thinking of trying to get a full Myth 
frontend running on it, but I haven't pursued that so far, since my Revo does 
that so well.

As a video player it works great, it has played anything I have thrown at it, 
with the exception of PVR-150 recordings. Not sure why, it may be too high a 
bitrate. It seems to try to play the files, but stutters and hangs, not a 
problem for me, I watch any Myth recordings with a Myth frontend (Revo).

Although technically not supported, it works well with the PlayON server.

I like the fact that it has a full-sized (3.5") hard drive, not one of those 
dog-slow laptop type 2.5" drives. It can access Samba or NFS shares, most of 
my viewing is via NFS from my main server.

I did replace the fan, which was junk, but that's pretty normal with just 
about anything these days. I ran without a fan for a few days and it didn't 
seem to get too warm, but being the paranoid type I put in a decent fan. 

If you're thinking about the ION version, I'd think a Revo might be a better 
answer, as well as cheaper. You would have to install your own software, but 
any Myth user should be able to deal with that. I suppose you could just run 
Windows on the Revo, and it should work, but what fun is that?

The Revo does have a slot that accepts the Broadcom CrystalHD unit, I think 
XBMC has support for that, but the ION does VDPAU, so with Linux that's 
probably enough, except for the highest-level de-interlacers (which I have 
found I can do without). You do need to beef up the RAM in the Revo in order 
to have enough RAM for VDPAU to be happy, but that's only another $30 or so.