[vdr] Re: Some hardware-questions

[Stefaan Coddé <stefaan.codde@pandora.be>]

> Rene Hertell wrote:
> On Sunday, May 02, 2004 6:07 PM
>
>
>
> > Hi list!
> >
> > I have finally convinced myself that I will build myself a VDR ASAP. I
> just
> > wanted to get some usage-opinions on the hardware I'm planning to buy:
> >
> > Epia-MII (1000 or 1200)
> > Rebach HTPC case (www.rebach.com)
> > 1Gig Ram
> > Large and silent 5400 rpm HDD
>
 You could  stick to less memory cause 1GB is really much for a VDR based
system. 128MB is enough.
I don't have the epia with CF card slot but double check that the board can
really bootfrom the compact flash card. Why not everything on harddisk?
A minimised linux distro  without Xwindows support is not so big and you
don't need X to run VDR.

> > I already have a Technotrend DVB-T budget card, and a Hollywood+
> > Mpeg2-decoder card.
>
 Great, then you have to buy the via pci extention board to get those two
PCI
 slots which is the maximum on the VIA epia.

> >This might give me the possibility to spin down the HDD when not
> > recording any programs.
>
The bios of the epia supports power managment so it can spin down the
harddisk if no harddisk activity is needed.


> > I found also out that linuxbios might work with the Epia-m card, so that
I
> > will consider once I get started..
>
Well, linuxbios has still problems with the epia-mII


> > My main questions is now regarding the VIA processor. What can I expect
> from
> > the processors that are available for the Epia-MII boards. The main
reason
> > why I want to use the Epia-board is that it does not need  as much
cooling
> > as all the other processor-brands need...
>
The fan on the 1 and 1.2Ghz epia board does make some noise so it's not
completely silent. The performance can be compared with a 500-600Mhz pentium
based machine.


> > What is the realistic minimum for:
> >
> > 1) running VDR, record programs and watch them.
> > 2) watch DVD's
> > 3) watching Xvid/Divx movies.
>
Xvid/DivX will need alot of processor time. DVD and VDR uses the mpeg
decoder on the DVB card, eh not in your case cause you have a budget DVB-T
card
without an hardware mpeg encoder but the hollywood card has one. I'm not
sure if VDR supports it tho. It's far better to use full featured DVB cards
on the epia so inclusive mpeg
 hardware decoder.



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