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PostPosted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 1:04 pm 
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Location: Mechanicsburg, PA
nharris wrote:
Back on topic (sort of), here is my Dragon 2.0 want list:

Backend+frontend machine, target price ~$1,000:
    Case similar to current Dragon
    Core2Duo, 500GB, MCE Remote, DVD+/-RW
    Motherboard graphics with DVI/HDMI (XvMC not required)
    Multichannel and optical audio output
    More flexible capture card configuration options

This is close to what we're working on for Dragon 2.0 :) It's in the prototyping phase now, so if you have any specific hardware recommendations for motherboards, now's your chance to make them. We're looking for boards with onboard audio with S/PDIF.

So far, we've eliminated one motherboard possibility (MSI 945P Neo3-F), one SATA hard drive option (Seagate ST3750640AS), and one optical drive option (LG GSAH10NK).

nharris wrote:
Frontend only machine, target price ~$500

That kind of design is still on our back burner, since it's still more cost-effective for high-definition to bundle the front- and back-ends together into a single system.

nharris wrote:
Personally, I need 1 of each right now with another frontend to follow. But, I'm waiting until KnoppMyth releases with 0.20-fixes. Hopefully, Core2Duo will become cheaper and more motherboards with HDMI will appear.

What are your future Dragon plans?

Dragon 2.0 will come out after final parts selection and KnoppMyth integration, with more configuration options than Dragons 1.0 and 1.1, including storage, video, and RAM. The Dragon 1.x spec will be given a refresh with some of the parts from Dragon 2.0, to create Dragon 1.2.

We have some concepts for split front and back ends as well, but that will happen after Dragon 2.0 and 1.2 are deployed.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 1:18 pm 
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Have you tried the Abit IL-90MV motherboard? It looks like a good fit. Here is a link to a review.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/380


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 2:06 pm 
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2 options for the frontend, depending on how development goes in the near future, are the Core Duo Mac Minis or the Playstation 3. The PS3, out of the box, has an option to install or boot from an install disc for linux, and Yellowdog is available for it. As long as there are developers working on the ppc port of Mythtv, we should see a viable PS3 frontend soon. The next few months look promising. Another exciting feature of the PS3 Yellowdog release is that it will have full support for Blu-ray. Imagine using your ps3 mythtv frontend to watch Blu-ray movies in full resolution! http://ps3.qj.net/tags/mythtv/8177 has some details but the rest are scattered around the web right now.

Sorry to get offtopic but I had to throw this in somewhere. :)


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 3:43 pm 
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Yeah, the PS3 does make one drool with out-of-the-box linux support. However, it's just as expensive if not more than a Mac mini. How well supported is a Mac mini front end? Does digital audio-out work? Is it fairly easy to get the HD (1080i/p) video output?

Too bad none of those hardware HD media boxes (around $200) could be hacked to run a myth frontend. uPnP and such just does not cut it.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:08 pm 
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nharris wrote:
Have you tried the Abit IL-90MV motherboard? It looks like a good fit. Here is a link to a review.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/380

I like that board, but it's designed for the Core 2 Duo notebook processors. Thus far, I'd been focusing on the desktop processors. My current prototype just uses the stock Core 2 Duo heatsink, and it's still pretty quiet. Not quite as quiet as the Zalman heatsink we currently use, but good enough for the entry-level Dragon 2.0 model.

Do you see specific advantages in using the notebook processor line? They tend to have lower clock speeds and seem to be limited in FSB speed. If quiet cooling is not an issue, is there another reason to go with them?

In any case, your suggestion caused me to widen my search to include boards that had onboard video. Intel seems to be doing pretty well in its Linux support, though the ICH8* chips seem to still have some support problems, but onboard Intel video might work as well as a motherboard + nVidia add-on PCI-X card.

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:26 pm 
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Personally, I think the onboard Intel video is fine. Let the processor do all the decoding, deinterlacing and filtering since it is plenty powerful. I would rather spend the extra money on more processor power instead of custom graphics boards which are dependent on vendor supplied drivers which are geared towards PureVideo support and such.

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased a few of the low end Dell Precision Workstations with Core2Duo processors for work. I was shocked at how quiet they are. Dell has this custom HUGE heatsink attached with a big internal fan blowing over it. You need to put your ear up to the case (less than 1") in a fairly quiet room to hear any noise. The power supply fan is equally quiet. These machines were $1,200/ea with 19" UltraSharp, DVD+/-RW, soundbar, etc... Impressive. But I would not want that big thing in my media stack.

Have you tired any of the motherboards with the Intel GMA3000 video? I'm am wondering about the Linux support for this new chipset. Intel said they were going to do the same as the older chipset and open up the spec. Hopefully some good Linux drivers will come out of this.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:54 pm 
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Linux support on intel graphics chips has traditionally been terrible and I suspect the latest generation is no better. I'd much rather base the spec on an Nvidia-based motherboard with onboard graphics than anything from Intel. With Intel you pretty much know you'll have to add a video card under Linux, but with Nvidia, the opposite is true.

I'll dig around and see if I can come up with something suitable.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 2:09 pm 
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Human: The MCE system builders seem to like the Asus P5B motherboard. Not sure what the Linux support for this board looks like.

afrosheen: I believe the Intel support is good (stable and built in), but the performance is not so good. If not using XvMC does this really matter? See what the MythTV wiki has to say on the subject.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/XvMC


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 3:01 pm 
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Well, a video card without performance is kinda worthless when you're pushing HD video isn't it? Maybe things have changed for Intel but the i810 chips were useless junk and even with framebuffer drivers they were bad.

I could be wrong here. Maybe a high performance video card isn't necessary at all when you have a dual-core processor pulling the load via XvMC. But then there are more things to Myth than just XvMC and watching movies. You've got emulated games which can be very greedy, full screen HD visualizations (that can bring my box to it's knees) in MythMusic, etc. I'm just trying to look at it from every angle.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:44 pm 
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I'm getting 3 additional boards in, 2 of which have embedded Intel video, and 2 of which have a PCI-Express 16x slot. A large percentage of Core 2 Duo boards have embedded Intel video, so hopefully this means that Intel's official Linux support for it is good.

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:51 pm 
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Care to share which motherboards these are? I am very interested in the results of your Intel video tests (ie-percent CPU usage during 1080i playback).

Also, a couple of guys I work with are also going the MythTV route (after demoing my test box). They are also looking for a cheap HD frontend solution (with fully frontend capability... not UPnP). If you get your new Dragon out in time, you may have a few more customers.

Also: The new Dragon needs to run 0.20-fixes. We are all using the HDHomeRun. Let's all hope a new KnoppMyth gets released soon.


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:20 pm 
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nharris wrote:
Care to share which motherboards these are? I am very interested in the results of your Intel video tests (ie-percent CPU usage during 1080i playback).

I have no stats yet, but I'm getting the Abit iL-90MV, the Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H, and the Intel DG965WH. Of the three, I'm rooting for the Intel board.
nharris wrote:
Also, a couple of guys I work with are also going the MythTV route (after demoing my test box). They are also looking for a cheap HD frontend solution (with fully frontend capability... not UPnP). If you get your new Dragon out in time, you may have a few more customers.

That'd be great :)
nharris wrote:
Also: The new Dragon needs to run 0.20-fixes. We are all using the HDHomeRun. Let's all hope a new KnoppMyth gets released soon.

At the moment, I'm working on both Dragon 2.0 and the next KnoppMyth (which includes 0.20-fixes), so that should be the case.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:02 pm 
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Human,

Do you still plan to "support" and do regression testing for the 1.0 and 1.1 Dragon models in future KM releases, or will you only be validating the latest KRP2.0 platform on new KM releases?

I love my two Dragon's (1.1) although the issues with Myth 0.20 was disapointing (not your fault in any way). I am wondering if I stick with my 1.1's will I be limited with regards to future feature sets? Or should I start saving my pennies for new KRP 2.0 systems when the spec is finalized?

Thanks!
Aaron


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:59 pm 
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nharris wrote:
Have you tried the Abit IL-90MV motherboard? It looks like a good fit. Here is a link to a review.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/380


2 interesting things about this. 1) I have never seen HDMI to DVI conversion. I thought that was one of the big deals about HDMI was "built in copy protection" 2) There is no mention as to where the HDMI port carries audio, which is the other big deal about HDMI.

I suspect this "HDMI" port is actually just a DVI port with built it DVI male to HDMI female adapter. However, I have done no research to back this up.


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:37 am 
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RichardBronosky wrote:
2 interesting things about this. 1) I have never seen HDMI to DVI conversion. I thought that was one of the big deals about HDMI was "built in copy protection" 2) There is no mention as to where the HDMI port carries audio, which is the other big deal about HDMI.

I suspect this "HDMI" port is actually just a DVI port with built it DVI male to HDMI female adapter. However, I have done no research to back this up.

The board has a Silicon Image Sil1390 chip which I believe does the DVI + audio to HDMI plus it has HDCP support. Of course, I could be wrong.


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