Hi!

I'm thinking of building myself a mythTV-system, where the primary tasks will be: TV, Recording, Watch DVD, Watch DivX Xvid etc transferred from computer on TV, and perhaps in the future a DVD-recorder.

1. Buy a VIA EPIA mainboard, Hauppauge PVR150, 512MB RAM, PSU, and a PCI risercard.

Will e.g the VIA EPIA ML6000EA be sufficent? How good is the TV-out quality from the integrated mpeg2-accelerated chip?

2. I have a PIII800mhz system, 256MB RAM. Will have to buy Hauppauge PVR150, a GFX card for tv-output, agp+pci risercards.

How can I (re-)build this system so it'll become silent enough to have it placed below the TV? Is http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/ an option when buying GFX-card? How's the quality compared to VIA EPIA?

_________________
cheers,
Mats Taraldsvik

BTW: I also have a PII 300mhz system. Perhaps that could be used if it isn't too weak?

_________________
cheers,
Mats Taraldsvik

I'm pretty happy with the tv-out on my VIA EPIA MII, I know its not the same model but I imagine it has the same tv-out chip.

It looks great on a plasma tv and "as good as can be expected" when on a regular TV.

Tv-out should be easy to set up aswell. Just involves enabling it in the BIOS and probably making one minor tweak to the XF86Config-4 file.

a 300 might work as a backend, but not a frontend.

If I were getting an epia I would go with the MII I know it has a fan, but the extra processing power will really help.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Well, I suppose I'll have to go for the MII, then. Although it's twice as expensive as the ML6000EA...

1. Is S-video the only/best option on a regular TV? I have read about VGA->RGB... would that work and give a better picture?

2. Where can I get hold of a (cheap) PSU for this motherboard? I'll build a custom case.

3. Is it possible to mount a bigger fan on the cpu and use that as the only fan in the case (I know the Hauppague-card tends to heaten up quite a bit)?

_________________
cheers,
Mats Taraldsvik

I would imagine you are talking about VGA -> component, as VGA = RGB and yes it gives a better picture than svideo, however generally only hdtv's have component inputs anyways.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets