[mythtv-users] Shopping for new hardware: Audio & discrete video?

[HP-mini]

On Wed, 2013-11-13 at 21:13 -0500, Jon N wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> My MythTV computer (front and backend, along with mostly web browsing,
> email and a few minor other tasks) is about 7 years old.  Although it
> still works pretty good on ATSC HDTV recorded OTA, I'm really itching
> to upgrade to something newer.  Since I run Debian I was asking on a
> Debian mailing list group about support for certain hardware, and ran
> into a problem I hadn't thought of before, which I'll ask below.
> 
> I did a little reading (mostly Wikipedia) to learn about current
> offerings for processors and quickly decided Intel Haswell (low end,
> probably Pentium, but I could stretch my budget to i3 if necessary)
> on an Mini-ITX motherboard would fit my needs.  Since I currently use
> a Nvidia video card I was planning on purchasing a newer Nvidia card
> for the new system.
> 
> I was hoping to use the HDMI on the card for both video and audio to
> my AV receiver.  But on the Debian mailing list I was told that it
> either isn't possible, or it is but it will probably be very
> difficult.  It seems to be that steering the digital audio to the PCIe
> slot so it can make it's way to the video card's HDMI isnt' something
> that could be done easily, although apparently it's done on Windows,
> so it's technically possible.
> 
> So basically, I have 2 questions.  How much, if any, success have any
> of you had doing this?  I realize I didn't narrow down the hardware
> choices much (Haswell motherboards & discrete Nvidia graphics cards),
> so I guess success or failures with certain hardware combo's might
> help me choose what I might buy.
> 
> But the other question is, how well the built in graphics that is part
> of the Haswell CPU's work as a MythTV front end?  Maybe the Nvidia
> card isn't needed at all.  I often will be watching one recorded show
> (I almost never do, or am interested in, Picture in Picture) and
> recording 2 (HDHomeRun tuners) shows while browsing the internet.
> 
> I hope I gave enough information to at least get a start on this.  If
> the questions can't really be answered at this point please let me
> know what more is needed.  Maybe I can narrow down my motherboard or
> Nvidia card choices some more
> 
> Thanks,
> Jon
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The performance/spec of the haswell (& Ivy/Sandybridge) GPU vary widely
with the CPU spec.
I suspect you would be well advised to get the top end haswell HD4500.
When the kernel/driver support is stable it should eliminate the
GT210/GT520/GT610/GT710? bottom end slot fillers.
The HD4500 appears to have the post-processing performance so there is
no compromise c.f. HT video card.