Mailing List Archive: what is an appropriate epia for mythfrontend only?

what is an appropriate epia for mythfrontend only?

Mar 30, 2003, 8:30 PM

Post #1 of 5 (1858 views)

I have MythTV running on my basement (noisy) Athlon 1800, and now I'd like to build a epia mini-itx system for the family room. Want it to be as quiet and unobtrusive as possible, and like the epia form-factor. If I'm just running Mythfrontend on this (to watch recordings from basement box, and maybe some MP3s (again, from basement), what would be the best (minimum) chip? Most talk on this list seems to be about the 9000... should I use that, or wait for the Nehemiah-core 1000? I am assuming these run hotter, and thus might need more cooling and thus might generate more noise.... so if running a slower fanless epia C3 works, I'm willing to entertain the notion. Any previous experience on this one?
('Course, this is going on the assumption that just running mythfrontend (and previously-recorded stuff) isn't such a CPU-load as watching live TV)

Thanks,
Greg
_______________________________________________________________
This message, including any attachments, may contain information
that is confidential and proprietary information of Advanced
Energy Industries, Inc. The dissemination, distribution, use
or copying of this message or any of its attachments is
strictly prohibited without the express written consent of
Advanced Energy Industries, Inc.

Re: what is an appropriate epia for mythfrontend only? [ In reply to ]

dert at pobox

Mar 30, 2003, 10:33 PM

Post #2 of 5 (1825 views)

Permalink

If you're curious about how much faster the 9000 is than the 800, check out
the recent EPIA/C3 review on Tom's Hardware. I think it paints a pretty
good picture of why the 9000 /may/ be viable and the 800 really isn't. I
believe there are several people here using both, so hopefully one of them
will chime in with more detail here...

Personally, I'm waiting for the dual-C3 on Nehemiah.

#if Greg Nyce /* Mar 30, 20:30 */
> I have MythTV running on my basement (noisy) Athlon 1800, and now I'd
> like to build a epia mini-itx system for the family room. Want it to be
> as quiet and unobtrusive as possible, and like the epia form-factor. If
> I'm just running Mythfrontend on this (to watch recordings from basement
> box, and maybe some MP3s (again, from basement), what would be the best
> (minimum) chip? Most talk on this list seems to be about the 9000...
> should I use that, or wait for the Nehemiah-core 1000? I am assuming
> these run hotter, and thus might need more cooling and thus might generate
> more noise.... so if running a slower fanless epia C3 works, I'm willing
> to entertain the notion. Any previous experience on this one? ('Course,
> this is going on the assumption that just running mythfrontend (and
> previously-recorded stuff) isn't such a CPU-load as watching live TV)
#endif /* greg.nyce@aei.com */

Re: what is an appropriate epia for mythfrontend only? [ In reply to ]

mythtv at matter

Mar 30, 2003, 11:45 PM

Post #3 of 5 (1832 views)

Permalink

I'm pretty happy with the EPIA M 9000 as a frontend. I am running it
diskless (and with a fanless PSU) so it is quiet. There are a few
limitations that I expect the Nehemiah to solve; namely it will have a
full speed FPU and SSE instruction support.

Also, the new Nehemiah is supposed to come with a much quieter fan.

BTW, I ran NTOP to measure the network load with the frontend system
mounted over NFS and playing back live TV (480x480, mpeg4, 3200 bitrate)
and the peak load I got was 8Mb/sec (and usually it was around 4Mb/sec).
I know from experience that this is more than my 802.11b can handle, but
it is no prob for 100Mbit ethernet.

Larry

> I have MythTV running on my basement (noisy) Athlon 1800, and now I'd
> like to build a epia mini-itx system for the family room. Want it to be
> as quiet and unobtrusive as possible, and like the epia form-factor. If
> I'm just running Mythfrontend on this (to watch recordings from basement
> box, and maybe some MP3s (again, from basement), what would be the best
> (minimum) chip? Most talk on this list seems to be about the 9000...
> should I use that, or wait for the Nehemiah-core 1000? I am assuming
> these run hotter, and thus might need more cooling and thus might
> generate more noise.... so if running a slower fanless epia C3 works,
> I'm willing to entertain the notion. Any previous experience on this
> one?
> ('Course, this is going on the assumption that just running
> mythfrontend (and previously-recorded stuff) isn't such a CPU-load
> as watching live TV)
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
> _______________________________________________________________
> This message, including any attachments, may contain information
> that is confidential and proprietary information of Advanced
> Energy Industries, Inc. The dissemination, distribution, use
> or copying of this message or any of its attachments is
> strictly prohibited without the express written consent of
> Advanced Energy Industries, Inc.

Re: what is an appropriate epia for mythfrontend only? [ In reply to ]

mythtv at cheema

Mar 31, 2003, 1:00 PM

Post #4 of 5 (1812 views)

Permalink

Are you able to use "jitter reduction" and "deinterlace" options on
the frontend?

Which sound driver are you using?

I have the same board EPIA M-9000 and I am seeing video stutter badly
when there is alot of motoin.

I am using the default vidoe settings. I looked at the mysql tables
brielfy and haven't identified the fields that need changing.

-Cheema

On Sun, Mar 30, 2003 at 10:45:19PM -0800, Larry Matter wrote:
> I'm pretty happy with the EPIA M 9000 as a frontend. I am running it
> diskless (and with a fanless PSU) so it is quiet. There are a few
> limitations that I expect the Nehemiah to solve; namely it will have a
> full speed FPU and SSE instruction support.
>
> Also, the new Nehemiah is supposed to come with a much quieter fan.
>
> BTW, I ran NTOP to measure the network load with the frontend system
> mounted over NFS and playing back live TV (480x480, mpeg4, 3200 bitrate)
> and the peak load I got was 8Mb/sec (and usually it was around 4Mb/sec).
> I know from experience that this is more than my 802.11b can handle, but
> it is no prob for 100Mbit ethernet.
>
> Larry
>
>
> > I have MythTV running on my basement (noisy) Athlon 1800, and now I'd
> > like to build a epia mini-itx system for the family room. Want it to be
> > as quiet and unobtrusive as possible, and like the epia form-factor. If
> > I'm just running Mythfrontend on this (to watch recordings from basement
> > box, and maybe some MP3s (again, from basement), what would be the best
> > (minimum) chip? Most talk on this list seems to be about the 9000...
> > should I use that, or wait for the Nehemiah-core 1000? I am assuming
> > these run hotter, and thus might need more cooling and thus might
> > generate more noise.... so if running a slower fanless epia C3 works,
> > I'm willing to entertain the notion. Any previous experience on this
> > one?
> > ('Course, this is going on the assumption that just running
> > mythfrontend (and previously-recorded stuff) isn't such a CPU-load
> > as watching live TV)
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Greg
> > _______________________________________________________________
> > This message, including any attachments, may contain information
> > that is confidential and proprietary information of Advanced
> > Energy Industries, Inc. The dissemination, distribution, use
> > or copying of this message or any of its attachments is
> > strictly prohibited without the express written consent of
> > Advanced Energy Industries, Inc.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

Re: what is an appropriate epia for mythfrontend only? [ In reply to ]

bjm at lvcm

Mar 31, 2003, 4:53 PM

Post #5 of 5 (1833 views)

Permalink

mythtv@cheema.com wrote:
> Are you able to use "jitter reduction" and "deinterlace" options on
> the frontend?
>
> Which sound driver are you using?
>
> I have the same board EPIA M-9000 and I am seeing video stutter badly
> when there is alot of motoin.
>
> I am using the default vidoe settings. I looked at the mysql tables
> brielfy and haven't identified the fields that need changing.

Deinterlace helps with jagged edges of things in motion and
jitter reduction helps with the little twitches. Bigger jumps
during motion are usually problems during recording. See:

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-19.html#ss19.4

and make sure your CPU isn't pegged while recording. I believe
that with the floating point performace of your chip you
would need to lower the resolution a notch or two but you
could increase your bitrate to get a little better picture.

-- bjm