Hardware for pvr

[Jason Shein]

On March 14, 2005 03:24 pm, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2005 at 11:43:30PM +0000, Jason Shein wrote:
> > I am currently using a cheap AthlonXp 1600, with a Hauppauge Hardware
> > MPEG card, and it works extremey well running MythTV or Freevo. Look into
> > the hardware database for othe configurations people are using.
> >
> > Pay the extra for a Haupauge card, the 250 or 350 PVR cards are best.
> >
> > I also recommend ( what will be in my next PVR ) a VIA EPIA S
> > motherboard.
> >
> > Look at http://www.viavpsd.com/product/epia_sp_spec.jsp?motherboardId=261
> >
> > on board MPEG2 & MPEG4 decoding reduces cpu usage.
> >
> > -snip-
> >
> > The VIA EPIA SP mainboard introduces the VIA CN400 Digital Media chipset
> > to the Mini-ITX form factor for the first time, extending the feature set
> > of the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX family to include support for DDR266/333/400 and
> > even greater digital media performance on the rapidly emerging new
> > generation of smart digital entertainment devices such as PVRs, set top
> > boxes, and media centers. Targeting x86 consumer electronics devices, the
> > Chromotion CE Video Display Engine of the S3 Graphics UniChrome??? Pro
> > IGP graphics core features hardware-based MPEG-2 decoding and MPEG-4
> > acceleration for smooth playback of the most popular video
> > formats,together with Adaptive De-Interlacing and Video De-Blocking
> > advanced video rendering functions for unequalled image crispness.
>
> And do they provide documentation and/or drivers for using those
> features under Linux?
>

Yes they most definitely do.

http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4887107636.html

http://www.walibe.com/content-33.html

Some discussion here about VIA and their commitment to linux and mention of 
the EPIA S motherboard.

http://lwn.net/Articles/99464/

and more detail on the CN400 chipset here

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3462367027.html

-snip-

The CN400 adds support for 200MHz front-side bus speeds, a 1GB/s "Ultra 
V-Link" southbridge interconnect, and hardware acceleration for MPEG-2 and 
-4, among other new features. The CN400's MPEG engine requires application 
awareness, and Via in August released a Linux build of the Xine media player 
for it. 

-snip-


-- 
Jason Shein
Director of Networking, Operations and Systems
Detached Networks
jason-xgs8i/e9EeWTtA8H5PvdGCwD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org
( 905 ) - 876 - 4158 Voice
( 905 ) - 876 - 5817 Mobile
http://www.detachednetworks.ca
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml