Mailing List Archive

> People seem to suggest that the VGA out on the
> Pundit does not perform as well as the SVideo
> out. Is that everyones experience?
>
> I had been hoping to use VGA out into a TV as
> I'd heard that often SVideo out will leave you
> with black borders and maybe even a green line
> down one side... do those issues occur with the
> SVideo out on the Pundit? Or is it an issue with
> the TV used rather than the device?

The VGA is perfect for me. I used that to setup the box before moving to a
TV over S-Video.

The S-Video TV out on the SiS drivers doesn't support overscan yet to
completely fill up the screen, but the borders are tiny on my TV anyway so
I'm not worried. No green lines either.

> Has anyone experimented with remote controls for
> the Pundit? The one thing it does lack is an IR
> port :-( I guess I'll have to get an IR dongle
> and use lirc. Has anyone found a nice one that
> would look good next to the Pundit? Probably
> even harder as I'm in the UK :-(

I use a IR keyboard plugged into PS-2. Hence I don't use LIRC, etc. Found it
at a local computer fair (I'm in UK as well).

> I also assume that there is going to be no way
> to turn on the Pundit via remote control?

There is an option to turn on via a keypress which would be perfect for me -
but I haven't tried it yet.

> Does the Pundit hardware support any kind of
> hibernate/standby mode like laptops have? I was
> wondering if using that would give quicker
> startup/shutdown times than closing the machine
> down fully and booting up normally?

I believe it does, like most modern mobos.

> And final question... how loud is it really? It's
> marketed as being quiet... but is it really?

A LOT quieter than the Shuttles I've seen in action. Mine's sitting out in
plain sight and currently making just a little more noise than I'd like. I'm
really picky tho, and I have always planned to put it under the TV behind
glass.

--
Steve

Re: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

jop at lsd

May 29, 2003, 7:22 AM

Post #3 of 19 (7810 views)

On Thursday 29 May 2003 14:00, matt@mattmarsh.net wrote:
>
> People seem to suggest that the VGA out on the
> Pundit does not perform as well as the SVideo
> out. Is that everyones experience?
>
> I had been hoping to use VGA out into a TV as
> I'd heard that often SVideo out will leave you
> with black borders and maybe even a green line
> down one side... do those issues occur with the
> SVideo out on the Pundit? Or is it an issue with
> the TV used rather than the device?

I had no trouble with neither of them.

> Has anyone experimented with remote controls for
> the Pundit? The one thing it does lack is an IR
> port :-( I guess I'll have to get an IR dongle
> and use lirc. Has anyone found a nice one that
> would look good next to the Pundit? Probably
> even harder as I'm in the UK :-(

I use the one bundled with the Pinnacle PCTV Pro. Not pretty, but small enough
to hide in the surrounding furniture. :-)

BTW, beware of the size of PCI cards. The PCTV fits very tightly in the Pundit
case.

> I also assume that there is going to be no way
> to turn on the Pundit via remote control?

Not that I know of.

> Does the Pundit hardware support any kind of
> hibernate/standby mode like laptops have? I was
> wondering if using that would give quicker
> startup/shutdown times than closing the machine
> down fully and booting up normally?

Try the software suspend patches. Although I still have to kill mythv during
suspend to avoid lockups (both frontend and backend), it is still faster than
a full reboot cycle. ACPI patches also work fine to make the power button
call suspend instead of power off.

> And final question... how loud is it really? It's
> marketed as being quiet... but is it really?

It is indeed quiet. Just make sure you turn the "Quiet Fan" setting to On in
BIOS setup. There is an annoying beep during POST which apparently cannot be
turned off. Disconnecting the internal speaker might fix it.

--
Jose Orlando Pereira
* mailto:jop@di.uminho.pt * http://gsd.di.uminho.pt/~jop *

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

steven.Purchase at uk

May 29, 2003, 8:27 AM

Post #4 of 19 (7775 views)

> BTW, beware of the size of PCI cards. The PCTV fits very
> tightly in the Pundit
> case.

Err yeah, be VERY weary of this... My WinTV PCI only fit by bending the case
out whilst slotting it in. Even then it's extremely tight!

The length is fine, it's the width that is the problem.

--
Steve

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 8:34 AM

Post #5 of 19 (7832 views)

>> BTW, beware of the size of PCI cards. The PCTV fits very
>> tightly in the Pundit
>> case.
>
>Err yeah, be VERY weary of this... My WinTV PCI only fit by bending the case
>out whilst slotting it in. Even then it's extremely tight!
>
>The length is fine, it's the width that is the problem.

That's certainly interesting. At least I'm not intending making
this box anything more than a MythTV frontend so I wont put a tuner
card in there, although I will probably want to add a PCI wireless
card once 802.11g cards are supported under Linux...

Matt

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 8:42 AM

Post #6 of 19 (7786 views)

>> People seem to suggest that the VGA out on the
>> Pundit does not perform as well as the SVideo
>> out. Is that everyones experience?
>
>The VGA is perfect for me. I used that to setup the box before moving to a
>TV over S-Video.
>
>The S-Video TV out on the SiS drivers doesn't support overscan yet to
>completely fill up the screen, but the borders are tiny on my TV anyway so
>I'm not worried. No green lines either.

OK, well that sounds like good news.

>> Has anyone experimented with remote controls for
>> the Pundit? The one thing it does lack is an IR
>> port :-( I guess I'll have to get an IR dongle
>> and use lirc. Has anyone found a nice one that
>> would look good next to the Pundit? Probably
>> even harder as I'm in the UK :-(
>>
>>I use a IR keyboard plugged into PS-2. Hence I don't use LIRC, etc. Found it
>>at a local computer fair (I'm in UK as well).
>
>> I also assume that there is going to be no way
>> to turn on the Pundit via remote control?
>
>There is an option to turn on via a keypress >which would be perfect for me -
>but I haven't tried it yet.

That's an interesting idea. I think I've seen some remote controls
which work as a keyboard plugged into the PS2 socket so maybe that
will be a good solution. If you give that a try then I'd be interested
to know that it works. I also seem to recall that those remotes were
RF based instead of IR so maybe I could hide away the dongle completely

Ah, so if you're in the UK too, where did you buy your Pundit from?
The cheapest I've found so far is www.scan.co.uk which have them for
about £150.

Thanks,
Matt

Re: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 8:44 AM

Post #7 of 19 (7784 views)

> I had no trouble with neither of them.

neither did I.

> I use the one bundled with the Pinnacle PCTV Pro. Not pretty, but small enough
> to hide in the surrounding furniture. :-)

hmm, same here. heh.

> BTW, beware of the size of PCI cards. The PCTV fits very tightly in the Pundit
> case.

Unfortunately, most tv tuner cards are pretty large (tall) and will have
this problem. It's a little work to get it in (there's a weird lip on
the case that you have to work around), but once inside it's fine.

> > I also assume that there is going to be no way
> > to turn on the Pundit via remote control?
> Not that I know of.

I don't know of any motherboards that do this.

> It is indeed quiet. Just make sure you turn the "Quiet Fan" setting to On in
> BIOS setup. There is an annoying beep during POST which apparently cannot be
> turned off. Disconnecting the internal speaker might fix it.

the POST beep is there for a good reason - it tells you that the
hardware is OK. If it isn't, you'll get different beeps. As for quiet,
it's the quietest case I've seen (and I deal with quite a few at work).
Antec has a new ultra-quiet case (full size desktop) out that might be
quieter, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet.

-Chris

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 8:46 AM

Post #8 of 19 (7775 views)

> Err yeah, be VERY weary of this... My WinTV PCI only fit by bending the case
> out whilst slotting it in. Even then it's extremely tight!

That's weird. I was able to angle the card in to get it to fit.

a wireless card should be ok. the problem is that there is a lip on the
case that fits exactly with the top of the slot bracket (the part of the
card that the screw goes through to secure it in place). Most cards are
shorter than this, but it seems that tv cards need to be ever so
slightly taller.

-Chris

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 8:48 AM

Post #9 of 19 (7769 views)

> There is an option to turn on via a keypress which would be perfect for me -
> but I haven't tried it yet.

damn, I must have missed this one in the bios. cool.

ATI makes a usb RF (radio, not IR) remote that looks cool - I plan to
pick one up someday. transmits straight keyboard/mouse signals. could
be handy for this.

-Chris

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

jcaputo1 at comcast

May 29, 2003, 9:30 AM

Post #10 of 19 (7771 views)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net]On Behalf Of Chris Petersen
> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 11:49 AM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] ASUS Pundit Questions
>
>
> > There is an option to turn on via a keypress which would be
> perfect for me -
> > but I haven't tried it yet.
>
> damn, I must have missed this one in the bios. cool.
>
> ATI makes a usb RF (radio, not IR) remote that looks cool - I plan to
> pick one up someday. transmits straight keyboard/mouse signals. could
> be handy for this.
>
> -Chris

Careful, that might not work... the RF receiver probably gets power from the
USB port, so the PC would need to be on in the first place in order for a
key to be received...

-JAC

Re: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

bdavis at elipsan

May 29, 2003, 11:09 AM

Post #11 of 19 (7837 views)

My Abit AT7 has power to the USB ports whilst it is turned off - all the
leds on my ubs devices are lit up when its off. Does the Pundit as well
or are they dead when its turned off?

Joseph A. Caputo wrote:

>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net
>>[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net]On Behalf Of Chris Petersen
>>Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 11:49 AM
>>To: Discussion about mythtv
>>Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] ASUS Pundit Questions
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>There is an option to turn on via a keypress which would be
>>>
>>>
>>perfect for me -
>>
>>
>>>but I haven't tried it yet.
>>>
>>>
>>damn, I must have missed this one in the bios. cool.
>>
>>ATI makes a usb RF (radio, not IR) remote that looks cool - I plan to
>>pick one up someday. transmits straight keyboard/mouse signals. could
>>be handy for this.
>>
>>-Chris
>>
>>
>
>
>Careful, that might not work... the RF receiver probably gets power from the
>USB port, so the PC would need to be on in the first place in order for a
>key to be received...
>
>-JAC
>
>_______________________________________________
>mythtv-users mailing list
>mythtv-users@snowman.net
>http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
>

Re: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 1:07 PM

Post #12 of 19 (7758 views)

schloer.jason at tangoinc

> > There is an option to turn on via a keypress which would be perfect for me -
> > but I haven't tried it yet.
>
> damn, I must have missed this one in the bios. cool.
>
> ATI makes a usb RF (radio, not IR) remote that looks cool - I plan to
> pick one up someday. transmits straight keyboard/mouse signals. could
> be handy for this.

Cool, I'll take a look at that one, sounds like it is what I'm after... I've
seen another one available in the UK too from www.laser.com.

Matt

--
Matt N. Marsh
Email: matt@mattmarsh.net
Web: http://www.mattmarsh.net/

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 1:20 PM

Post #13 of 19 (7766 views)

I actually have the remote and it doesn't exactly transmit keyboard
signals. In order to getit to work I had to install the ati_remote
kernel module from gatos. This module connects to the remote receiver on
the USB port and converts the signals to keyboard input. So it might not
work exactly s you want, but it may. Hope that helps some.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net] On Behalf Of Matt Marsh
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 4:08 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] ASUS Pundit Questions

> > There is an option to turn on via a keypress which would be perfect
for me -
> > but I haven't tried it yet.
>
> damn, I must have missed this one in the bios. cool.
>
> ATI makes a usb RF (radio, not IR) remote that looks cool - I plan to
> pick one up someday. transmits straight keyboard/mouse signals.
could
> be handy for this.

Cool, I'll take a look at that one, sounds like it is what I'm after...
I've
seen another one available in the UK too from www.laser.com.

Matt

--
Matt N. Marsh
Email: matt@mattmarsh.net
Web: http://www.mattmarsh.net/
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 1:36 PM

Post #14 of 19 (7793 views)

dmiller at flcommunications

> I actually have the remote and it doesn't exactly transmit keyboard
> signals. In order to getit to work I had to install the ati_remote
> kernel module from gatos. This module connects to the remote receiver on
> the USB port and converts the signals to keyboard input. So it might not
> work exactly s you want, but it may. Hope that helps some.

Good to know, I guess.. I just assumed that it was straight usb
keyboard (I've seen others, and some built-in IR ones that do that) -
weird that it has its own protocol.

-Chris

Re: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 1:49 PM

Post #15 of 19 (7778 views)

> > I actually have the remote and it doesn't exactly transmit keyboard
> > signals. In order to getit to work I had to install the ati_remote
> > kernel module from gatos. This module connects to the remote receiver on
> > the USB port and converts the signals to keyboard input. So it might not
> > work exactly s you want, but it may. Hope that helps some.
>
> Good to know, I guess.. I just assumed that it was straight usb
> keyboard (I've seen others, and some built-in IR ones that do that) -
> weird that it has its own protocol.
>
> -Chris

I also have this remote, and I like it very much. If you aren't happy with
what a key is sending,
or you can't remap it, just go into ati_remote.c and change what the key
sends to what you want
it to send, then recompile it. i.e. if you want to have the "d" key send
"i", just change the line
{KIND_FILTERED, 0xde, 0x19, EV_KEY, KEY_D, 1},
to
{KIND_FILTERED, 0xde, 0x19, EV_KEY, KEY_I, 1},
and then recompile and load the driver. now your d key will send an i!
Hope that made sense!
Doug

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

jcaputo1 at comcast

May 29, 2003, 2:01 PM

Post #16 of 19 (7809 views)

If you're looking for a wireless device to send keyboard codes, I just got
an RF keyboard & gyroscopic mouse (http://www.gyration.com) for $99 at
CompUSA. The next day I put my IR remote away for good :-)

-JAC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net]On Behalf Of Chris Petersen
> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 4:37 PM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] ASUS Pundit Questions
>
>
> > I actually have the remote and it doesn't exactly transmit keyboard
> > signals. In order to getit to work I had to install the ati_remote
> > kernel module from gatos. This module connects to the remote receiver on
> > the USB port and converts the signals to keyboard input. So it might not
> > work exactly s you want, but it may. Hope that helps some.
>
> Good to know, I guess.. I just assumed that it was straight usb
> keyboard (I've seen others, and some built-in IR ones that do that) -
> weird that it has its own protocol.
>
> -Chris

Re: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 29, 2003, 2:03 PM

Post #17 of 19 (7777 views)

> I actually have the remote and it doesn't exactly transmit keyboard
> signals. In order to getit to work I had to install the ati_remote
> kernel module from gatos. This module connects to the remote receiver on
> the USB port and converts the signals to keyboard input. So it might not
> work exactly s you want, but it may. Hope that helps some.

So I guess it doesn't look like a keyboard to the BIOS and therefore
can't be used to wake up the machine? Pity :-(

At least the other remote I saw plugs directly into the PS2 port instead
of USB so maybe that one will do what I want, but it's a pity as the
ATI one looks so much nicer...

Matt

--
Matt N. Marsh
Email: matt@mattmarsh.net
Web: http://www.mattmarsh.net/

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

mythtv at elmegil

May 29, 2003, 8:10 PM

Post #18 of 19 (7825 views)

kschuerman at thekeyboardcowboy

At 03:34 PM 5/29/03 +0000, matt@mattmarsh.net wrote:
>That's certainly interesting. At least I'm not intending making
>this box anything more than a MythTV frontend so I wont put a tuner
>card in there, although I will probably want to add a PCI wireless
>card once 802.11g cards are supported under Linux...

You might check out whether there are any 802.11g bridges out there. I
only have a "b" WAP so it doesn't matter to me, and I got a D-Link bridge
for my network once I get this thing down into the living room. One
warning about the D-Link bridge: it claims to be configurable from any OS,
but currently can only be configured using Internet Explorer 6.0; heavy
javascript that relies on the windows version of JS is the culprit. Aside
from that complaint, the bridge works very well--just run a short ether
cable from the onboard network port (saves me a card slot) to the bridge
and voila, I'm on the network. The bridge was around the same price as a
good 802.11b card and as I say, saves a slot.

RE: ASUS Pundit Questions [ In reply to ]

May 30, 2003, 7:35 AM

Post #19 of 19 (7825 views)