[mythtvnz] Hardware Recommendations

Wed Mar 24 04:03:44 GMT 2010

The Asus en9400GT has DVI-I & DVI-D & component dongle connector.
Can drive three independent screens.

The later nVidia chipsets have better driver support & more hardware 
decode capability.

I use the DVI-A to VGA cable to CRT (VGA input) & DVI-D cable to small LCD.
The component output was just as flexible configuration  as the VGA.
The VGA was just a tidier solution.

VGA is analogue RGB with separate H & V sync.
SCART can connect composite, s-video & RGB+sync.
Some (very few) SCART (crap spelt wrong) devices accept RGBs.
SCART RGB sync can be combined on green ? or into s-video luminence ?
Can make an adaptor to combine the sync signals & stuff into one of the 
s-video lines.

DVI-I is DVI-D & DVI-A in same connector: can use adaptor to VGA & 
adaptor to HDMI.

Normal 19 pin HDMI is single link only (fine for 1080p) & was speced by 
consumer electronics groups.
DDWG DVI supports dual link speced from computer industry groups.

If you a concerned about future connectivity then VESA Displayport 
connector is the way...
VESA Displayport is DVI with all the nasty DRM stuff from HDMI built-in 
for our benefit.

On 24/03/2010 2:15 p.m., Stephen Worthington wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:50:30 +1300, you wrote:
>
>    
>> Hey everyone,
>>
>> Thanks for all your responses.  You've all been very helpful.
>>
>> I've found a DVI to component cable, so I'll get an NVidia card with
>> VPDAU and DVI output and connect to the component sockets on the TV.
>> The video card will have HDMI as well, so I'm future proofed there.
>>
>> I've done a bit of searching about the TBS 6980 tuner card.  Mixed
>> messages about it working with MythTV, but I'll make sure I can return
>> it if it is not suitable.  This link says it should work
>> http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/product/6980.html.  That page even has a
>> MythTV logo on it.  I just really like the idea of having both tuners
>> on the same card so it takes up less space inside the PC.  I'll make
>> sure the PC I choose has room for 2 individual tuners just in case.
>>      
> Problem: The drivers listed on that page are for 2.6.32 kernel.  The
> current kernel in Ubuntu is 2.6.31 (2.6.31-20 at the moment), until
> Mythbuntu 10.4 comes out at the end of April.  So you may well run
> into the same problem I seem to have at present with my new my TeVii
> S470 DVB-S2 card, which is that the drivers seem to upgrade the Video
> 4 Linux version (V4L), and this breaks things.  I can not get MythTV
> to use my three DVB-T tuners with the new drivers for installed.  They
> are usable in Kaffeine, but MythTV fails to tune them.  And w_scan
> does not work, saying it is incompatible with the new version.
>
> I am just trying out Mythbuntu 10.04 beta1 today, to see if the
> pre-release MythTV 0.23 works with the new kernel and will run all my
> tuners at once.  But I am having problems getting it to work (it
> really is rather alpha-ish, with various things obviously broken).
> Mythbuntu 10.04 beta1 is using the 2.6.32-16 kernel currently.
>
>    
>> I know it would be preferable to have a backend system in the garage,
>> or in the "Harry Potter" cupboard under the stairs, but while I'm
>> still dealing exclusively with SD content, I think I'll just combine
>> them in to one box in the TV cabinet.  As I understand it, when I
>> start dealing with HD content I'll need a gruntier box and maybe more
>> storage.
>>
>> Now I just have to find the right PC and case to put it all in.
>>      
> The basic problem with building a MythTV box is noise.  One intended
> for a bedroom needs to be extremely quiet.  One in a lounge needs only
> to be quiet.  I built one for my mother just before Christmas, and I
> kept it fairly quiet by using a Gigabyte M85M-US2H motherboard that
> had builtin Nvidia 8400GS video (with no fan), and a Zalman ZM500-HP
> power supply.  The result is that the loudest sound from the box is
> the hard disk (Seagate ST31000528AS) when it is doing something.  The
> CPU fan on the Athlon II X2 245 processor and the power supply fan
> fade into the background in the lounge.  The fans on normal Nvidia
> graphics cards are rather noisy and would be quite noticeable and
> annoying, which is why I also got an Asus "silent" model 8400GS card
> for my own MythTV box in my bedroom when I updated it to use VDPAU.
> The Gigabyte M85M-US2H motherboard does seem to still be available
> from a small number of NZ retailers, but they may have just forgotten
> to update their databases as it has disappeared from Ascent's web
> site.  I would recommend it for MythTV boxes.
>
> The 8400GS GPU is a little underpowered for using the higher
> deinterlace modes, but I have not personally found the lower modes to
> be a problem.  Note that there seem to have been two versions of
> 8400GS chips - the M85M-US2H uses the newer much better version, as
> does my silent 8400GS:
>
>    http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=9384472
>
> The new version 8400GS chips seem to actually be derived from the 9000
> series GPUs, rather than the 8000 series.
>
> Warning: The M85M-US2H motherboard has DVI-D and HDMI outputs only.
> There is also a D-Sub (VGA) connector for analogue monitors, but I am
> not sure if you can get VGA to component converters in NZ, and if you
> can they will not be cheap.  The HDMI supports audio over HDMI.
>
> The Asus silent 8400GS card has DVI-I, D-Sub (VGA) and S-Video
> outputs, and comes with an S-Video to component converter cable (which
> I have never tried using).  Since the component out is via an S-Video
> connector, I would presume that it will produce YPbPr component
> signals, not RGB.  But I could not find anything in the documentation
> to say for sure.  I am using it with a DVI to HDMI cable, and running
> the sound from the PC sound card over SPDIF to my hifi system, so I
> can not say if it supports audio over DVI->HDMI.
>
> A number of people seem to be waiting for the arrival of silent GT220
> based cards, which should provide all the GPU needed to use the
> highest deinterlace modes at a fairly cheap price.  Given the
> relatively low price of the silent 8400GS card, you could just get one
> of them and see if it works for you, with the option of updating later
> to a GT220 based one if lower deinterlace modes are a problem.
>
>    
>> Thanks
>>
>> David Kirk
>>      
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