Mailing List Archive: VIA EPIA 800

VIA EPIA 800 - Sound Question

Nov 21, 2002, 12:47 AM

Post #1 of 5 (1719 views)

Just curious if anyone has any experience with using this motherboard
with MythTV? I'm looking into building a media box in the distant
future (most likely around May or June when I am done school and will
have money to spend). I intend to use a Gentoo installation with the
EPIA 800 and a TV-Wonder/WinTV (depending on prices and availability).
My main concern with the EPIA 800 is the on-board sound quality. Since
the board only comes with one expansion slot which will be used by the
TV card, I would be stuck with the onboard sound if I buy this board,
and I don't want to be stuck with really bad sound. I'm not expecting
perfect sound that would please a true audiophile, just sound quality
that doesn't have any really noticeable hiss or pops (basically, I can
listen to it without being driven mad by interference/noise).

Any opinions on this board would be appreciated.

Thanks

Re: VIA EPIA 800 - Sound Question [ In reply to ]

cyphactor at socal

Nov 23, 2002, 1:56 PM

Post #2 of 5 (1671 views)

Permalink

I have used the on board audio in RedHat 7.3 and it works fine, there
is no hissing and popping. And you are wrong about being limited to
one PCI card. VIA Tech makes a 1 to 2 PCI riser card specifically for
this mother board. It is a special riser card so normal riser cards will
not work unless they are 1 to 1 riser cards.

On (11/21/02 02:47), Richard Gibert wrote:
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> Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 02:47:51 -0500
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>
> Just curious if anyone has any experience with using this motherboard
> with MythTV? I'm looking into building a media box in the distant
> future (most likely around May or June when I am done school and will
> have money to spend). I intend to use a Gentoo installation with the
> EPIA 800 and a TV-Wonder/WinTV (depending on prices and availability).
> My main concern with the EPIA 800 is the on-board sound quality. Since
> the board only comes with one expansion slot which will be used by the
> TV card, I would be stuck with the onboard sound if I buy this board,
> and I don't want to be stuck with really bad sound. I'm not expecting
> perfect sound that would please a true audiophile, just sound quality
> that doesn't have any really noticeable hiss or pops (basically, I can
> listen to it without being driven mad by interference/noise).
>
>
>
> Any opinions on this board would be appreciated.
>
>
>
> Thanks
>

Re: VIA EPIA 800 - Sound Question [ In reply to ]

cyphactor at socal

Nov 23, 2002, 2:04 PM

Post #3 of 5 (1667 views)

Permalink

I am betting that you are going to have problems with MythTV working
on this mother not because of the sound but because of the CPU speed.
It uses a C3 800Mhz built in chip. This means not upgradable and it
is aprox equiv to a 750mhz pentium. This is limiting because you have
to doing the encoding and decoding in software. If mythtv had the capablities
to dump either the encoding or decoding to hardware it might work.

On (11/21/02 02:47), Richard Gibert wrote:
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> Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 02:47:51 -0500
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>
> Just curious if anyone has any experience with using this motherboard
> with MythTV? I'm looking into building a media box in the distant
> future (most likely around May or June when I am done school and will
> have money to spend). I intend to use a Gentoo installation with the
> EPIA 800 and a TV-Wonder/WinTV (depending on prices and availability).
> My main concern with the EPIA 800 is the on-board sound quality. Since
> the board only comes with one expansion slot which will be used by the
> TV card, I would be stuck with the onboard sound if I buy this board,
> and I don't want to be stuck with really bad sound. I'm not expecting
> perfect sound that would please a true audiophile, just sound quality
> that doesn't have any really noticeable hiss or pops (basically, I can
> listen to it without being driven mad by interference/noise).
>
>
>
> Any opinions on this board would be appreciated.
>
>
>
> Thanks
>

RE: VIA EPIA 800 - Sound Question [ In reply to ]

nathan at ziarek

Nov 23, 2002, 3:06 PM

Post #4 of 5 (1674 views)

Permalink

The EPIA 800 Series is only supposed to produce the same speed as a
Duron 500MHz...the C3 1GHz is a bit faster, but not across the board:
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/02q2/020605/c3-06.html. Make sure to
notice when more is worse and when more is better on those graphs (i.e.
more FPS = good, more seconds to do something = bad) - I was thouroughly
confused for a little while ;-)

Nate