[vdr] Re: STB VDR

[Marc Haisenko <marc.haisenko@software-for-people.com>]

On Friday 19 April 2002 13:13, you wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Apr 2002 10:27:04 +0200, Marc Haisenko
>
> <marc.haisenko@software-for-people.com> wrote:
> > I don't know which version this is, I looked on the circuit board but
> > there are no informations about the rating. It is without fan though, and
> > has enough rating to power a 2,5" HDD ;-) You need a special 3,5" IDE ->
> > 2,5" IDE cable though, but you should be able to get it easily in
> > computer stores.
>
> Does that mean that only 2.5" HDDs are working in the box?
> I read that 2 3.5" bays are available.

Because of missing 3,5" IDE power connectors, yes, only 2,5" HDDs.

> > I spoke to the people from NSC at the CeBIT and they said they will
> > release a new reference plattform for the Geode soon and will release new
> > software with it. We hope this really will be soon (they said sometime in
> > May), and that they have a newer kernel included... 2.4.0 is a pain
> > sometimes, you can feel the experimental spirit ;-)
>
> Have you ever tried to make a diff to a vanilla 2.4.0 kernel and patch a
> more current one?

Nope, but would be a worth a try... never thought of that.

> > Maximum PAL is 768x576, that's lower than XGA :-)
>
> Not with true 16:9 output. Then you need 1024x576. :-)
>
> [ I have an anamorphic lens for the projektor which requires output of
> 1024x768. ]

Interesting...

> > What's a Nova card ?
>
> It's a cheap DVB card without MPEG2 decoder. The decoding could be done
> bei the EM8400.
>
> But all this requires probably a lot of new software.

Not much... we wrote a small MPEG2 decoder ourselves, there is a small example 
app in the linux4.tv sources (or was it on the sources we got from Allwell ? 
not sure about this, but it's no problem).

After preparing the overlay you only need to access the FMP API (this is a 
cite from my collegue, don't know what it is ;-) which has nice funtions... 
in the end there is a function to which you pass a buffer with MPEG2 data, 
that's it. It's about 5 lines of code for overlay and about 20 lines of codes 
for playback.

> > And with the power requirements: I don't know, it has no problems with a
> > PCI networking card but these don't use much power ;-)
>
> I thought one Ethernet port is onboard?
> Is it supported by a Linux driver?

Yes it is, but we had problems with multicasting and our software depends on 
multicasting... Problem is, normal sized PCI cards slightly touch the RAM 
module :-( The only problem arising from that is that it might not be 
possible to leave the slot plate in the box, but circuits don't touch each 
other.

> Emil

C'ya,
	Marc


-- 
Marc Haisenko
Development
Software for People AG
Münchner Str. 45
Germany - 82131 Gauting
mailto: marc.haisenko@software-for-people.com
mailto: axl@cu-muc.de