mini-ITX graphics woes

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, May 20, 2005 at 09:35:57AM -0400, Stewart C. Russell wrote:
> Hmm, a lot of options here. Basically, what I'm wanting to build is:
> 
> * a silent PC that draws very little power (hey, I mean, I can hardly be
> Mr Green Energy if my PC's CPU alone draws 1/3 of the average European
> domestic load ...)
> * a DVD player
> * a CD player
> * (I'm undecided if I want one of these) a TV/PVR sort of thing.
> 
> As Lennart said, a Hauppauge decoder card might solve most of these
> problems. But the regular graphics performance of the EPIA 800 under
> Linux is pretty poor, so I might be yoking a thoroughbred to a carthorse.
> 
> It might be cheaper for me to buy one of the newer mini-ITX boards (that
> have supported graphics, MPEG en-/de-coding, and handy things like
> USB2.0 and 1394) and a much cheaper TV tuner card than buy the
> Hauppauge. I'll need to cost it out.

The hauppage is not that expensive and is generally regarded as by far
the best choice in tuner card for linux.  The 250 doesn't have hardware
decoding so it is cheaper if you plan to use the vga connector and do
decoding in software anyhow.  It still does hardware mpeg2 encoding
though.  If you want to display on a regular tv (svideo perhaps) the
hauppage cards are handy for sending the video out that way.  MythTV can
even run on that card's output while regular X works on the vga display
at the same time doing other things.  The remote control (linux
supported) is also nice on the hauppage cards and who doesn't want a
remote.

I suspect a new board with usb2 and firewire and all that shouldn't be
that expensive and a low power semptron or even athlon64 isn't bad to
use.  They use much less power than a P4.

Lennart Sorensen
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