Hi Guys,

I have been running KnoppMyth happily for many years now, but having recently bought a nice LCD TV, I have decided to upgrade my setup for HD!

My plan is to convert my current combined BE/FE into just the backend, and setup a new frontend machine which will be capable of displaying HD content.

Being based in the UK, this will initially be BBC HD and (hopefully) ITV HD via satellite, which I believe is H264 encoded.

I am hoping to network boot the new frontend, so my current shopping list is:

Hiper Media Center Case (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123962) £50
Low profile cooler (http://www.xcase.co.uk/p/301588/hiper-hfc-20820-c1-low-profile-cooler---socket-am2-.html) £16
Athlon 64 x2 4800+ (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134571) £50
2GB ram (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129954) £30

What I am not sure of is what motherboard to get, so any suggestions would be appreciated.
It needs to have coax spdif output as well as onboard video. I have seen a few that mention hardware H264 decoding, but am I right in thinking that this is not supported in linux?
Also is there any benefit to using DVI/HDMI output over VGA for 1080p HD signals?
My TV accepts 1080p via VGA so I am thinking of getting something like the less well specced MSI K9N6SGM-V (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126138) as this has nvidia graphics which I am assuming will work fine! (This also has the benefit of a serial port so I can get a cheap IR receiver from http://www.irblaster.info/receiver.html)

Many thanks for any suggestions or comments. I am also not 100% certain this CPU will be fast enough for HD playback, so if someone could confirm this that would be great

Regards,
Gerard

I haven't looked at AMD motherboards in a while, but I can confirm that your processor choice will work fine for HDTV.

_________________
Silverstone LC10|MSI K8N Neo4-F|1GB PC3200|Athlon 64 X2 4200+|NEC 3550A DVD-RW
750GB + 400GB w/Storage Groups|eVGA GeForce 7600 GS w/VGA out to Aquos 32" LCD |PVR-500|PVR-250|SiliconDust HDHomerun

Thanks for the confirmation.

Given that the CPU will be fine for HD playback, I think I'll skip on the graphics hardware for HD decoding, as I have a feeling it will just cause more issues!

I guess I can always add in a video card at a later date if needed...

I think the point here is that hardware decoding is "not supported" yet. But a 4800 is quite capable of software decoding.

I was really hoping that the May Radeon drivers, from any of the three streams, would support hardware decoding in the 780G chipset. Alas, it is not there! Though Phoronix.com is certainly hinting that it will exist sometime this summer. (X is supported, and video does play well - it's just decoded in software not hardware.)

The same holds true for the 8200.

You might consider using the 4850e instead. The 4800 is a 65W processor, while the 4850e is a 45W one. The performance should be slightly better, and the price point is very close. Cooler = quieter too.

I have taken the leap with the 8200 series chipset.

It was a hard call since the 780g has been around longer and support for it seems high. But I have always had good luck with nforce sets so I am hoping this one wont disappoint me.

If nothing gets done with the 8200 drivers and the 780g leaps ahead i can always change since its only the board that would need changing.

Great new boards and cpus out at the moment but the lack of good drivers is holding a lot of people moving forward to the low power setups.

Jbman:

Please report back on your experience with the 8200 board ASAP. I haven't seen much on it's linux drivers.

There does seem to be a split between the 780 and 8200 based boards. The real home theatre geeks seem to prefer the 8200 boards because it will do 8 channel audio (7.1) over HDMI. Apparently the 780 will only do 2 channel over the HDMI due to bandwidth limitations. It is capable of 8 channel -- just not over HDMI.

These are both exciting chipsets. I haven't plunked down my money yet, but will soon. It will be interesting to see how well the equivalent Intel offering pans out. Me thinks there will be a lot of HTPC capable systems built this summer.

No worries, the order is in just waiting on delivery, any luck this weekend i will have a play with the board with a plain linux dist to see if all goes well. I want to make sure i can get it to run as a base system before trying any mythtv stuff.

I will keep everyone posted and also I think i am going to blog it as well.

Thanks for the info guys.

I didn't know about the lower power AMD CPUs. I think the 4850e definitely makes sense!

I am still having problems with picking a motherboard though! Seeing as software decoding will work fine, I am not too bothered about hardware support for this, but what is essential for me is to have coax SPDIF output.

I have so far failed to find any matx boards with this connection on the back. They all seem to require a separate bracket which I cant find anywhere! (I've seen mention of do it yourself instructions, but I don't think I'm up to that!)

Does anybody have any recommendations for motherboards with coax spdif built in, or any ideas where the brackets can be bought from?

Many thanks for your help.
Gerard

You're just looking at the wrong manufacturers.

Asus (and their cousin AsRock) seem to cheep out and require the add on of the bracket. They also cut corners by not including Firewire. (Who in their right mind would build a board targeted at hi-def HTPC types, and not include firewire to capture from their satellite/cable box?) Their Spidif bracket is a fairly standard part. I'm sure I've seen it for about $15.

Gigabyte's 8200 offering has RCA Spdif. Their 780 model has optical Spdif. And both have a header on the motherboard.

Of the current offerings (at least based on the photos from etailers I perused) these seem to be the only boards with backplain Spdif. Everyone else has it on a header. Maybe they're all expecting that audio over HDMI is what most people will want/use.

The Spdif brackets came in the box an both of last gen (690 and 7150) MSI boards that passed through my hands recently. I'd bet the same ones would work on current boards, though pictures don't show them as being in the box.

It looks like the windows drivers on the 8200 are in real flux. Apparently the latest version stripped the 8 channel audio over HDMI, back to 2.1 channel - ie tied with the 780. There's been no explanation as to why.

And some time later this year there will be a newer southbridge for the 780's that will more audio channels for the HDMI.

Firewire was no use to me snice in Australia there are no boxes that use firewire for connection.

But yes I don't understand the whole header thing. I have a few from other bit and have bought them for people before on ebay for about $5 each.

Well, there is the EyeTV 400 and 410, but I haven't gotten them to work in MythTV yet

_________________
| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club

This does look like a good board, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available anywhere in the UK, otherwise I think I would have gone for this.
(And I guess there is also the issue of the drivers possibly not being there yet.)


In the end I have gone for the MSI K9AGM3-FIH which is 690G based, as I could get this one easily. I am hoping it will come with the spdif bracket, but if not, I will just have to find somewhere to buy it!

From what I understand the drivers for this are fine for video playback, which is all I need given that the 4850e will do HD decoding. (Not that I have any HD content yet anyway )

Thanks for your help.

Thought I'd follow up on this in case anyone else is interested.
Unfortunately this board (bought from ebuyer) did not come with the spdif bracket, but I have been able to get one from Morgan Computers: http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/shop/d ... goryID=320

Now I just need to try and put it all together!
I think I might wait for the next KM release first though