[mythtv-gta]: Re:MythTV Frontend Hardware

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Sun, Jun 08, 2008 at 08:59:42PM -0400, Doug Lee wrote:
> Some interesting offerings on the VIA website but I don't know if any 
> will fit a standard case.
> http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/
> 
> Some of these have built in H264 (mpeg4) decoding as well as mpeg2, a 
> future consideration for Blu-ray, downloads and non ATSC TV (EG:FTA 
> satellite because the DVB standards MAY use mpeg4 in place of mpeg2). I 
> have seen talk on various linux forums about open source drivers for these 
> boards/graphics chips including H264 decoding, Support is built into 
> mythtv. AFAIK software only decoding of 1080 line H264 taxes even the most 
> modern cpus.

Well I certainly xvid decoding of 720p content doesn't cause any concern
for my mythtv box at all, but it does run a quad 2.4GHz, so it better
not mind.

> Disclaimer: I don't have and have never played with one. I'm just giving 
> you a starting point for further research as they sound interesting.
> 
> this one is a possibility.
> http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/motherboards.jsp?motherboard_id=591
> VIA MMC 7000
> Main features snipped from the web page:
> 
> VIA C7 1.5 GHz NanoBGA2 Processor
> Integrated VIA UniChrome# Pro AGP graphics with MPEG-2 decode acceleration
> 1 x PCI slot with 3 devices supported
> (not sure what this means-optional riser board?)
> 1 x PCI-e 16x based MXM-II (Mobile PCI Express Module) slot
> VIA VT6103L 100/10 Ethernet PHY
> Optional VIA VT6107 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Controller or VT6122 
> Gigabit Ethernet Controller
> VIA VT1618 multi-channel AC'97 Codec
> 3 x Audio jacks: Line-out, Line-in and MIC-in (Horizontal, Smart 5.1 
> Supported)
> 1 x DVI pin connector (supported by MXM-II add-on card)
> 1 x VGA port 
> 1 x TV out (Composite/S-video or Component) pin connector (supported by 
> MXM-II add-on card)
> 1 x ATX power connector
> 
> or this one:
> http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/motherboards.jsp?motherboard_id=630
> The VB7002 features the VIA CN896 chipset for superb graphics and video 
> playback. The VIA Chromotion video engine offers hardware acceleration 
> for the latest video codecs for a smooth multimedia playback...
> 
> VIA C7-D 1.5 GHz NanoBGA2 Processor with FSB 400 MHz
> 1 x 16-Lane PCIe slot
> 1 x 32 Bit Mini PCI slot
> 1 x ATX power connector
> No onboard DVI or 100Mbit though.

In many ways they are very outdated, but they do run quite cool.  Not
very fast though.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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