[vdr] EPIA M with FF Card

[Nicolas Huillard]

Leo Márquez a écrit :
> Hi!
> I have an EPIA M motherboard and a Nexus-s FF DVB-s card.
> What kind of VDR/plugins implementation do you recommend to me?
> I have planned to use the svga out from the nexus and the onboard EPIA 
> RCA to the 6 channel audio output.

You will either use the HW MPEG2 decoder of the FF-card, or the one on 
the EPIA, or a software decoder :
* FF HW decoder : use the TV-out connector of the DVB card, you will get 
video quality (interlaced, s-video signal or RGB signal if you have the 
connector). No required plugin (plain VDR is aimed at this configuration 
: no surprise)
* CLE266 HW decoder or software decoder : you will need a plugin 
(softdevice or vdr-xine or xineliboutput), video output through the VGA 
connector (high quality, suitable for LCD TVs) or the s-video-out of the 
mobo (bad to acceptable quality, depending on details : I can comment 
more on this, or search the ML archive). You could have bought a budget 
card if you plan to use this setup.

vdr-xine or xineliboutput will use the hardware decoder if you use the 
right X, XvMC, etc. Aim at really recent version or CVS for all that 
stuff. I can provide links for Debian repositories if you use that 
distro (or search the list archive : it's a FAQ).
softdevice won't use the CLE266 for now, but this might be on the TODO. 
If you have a Nehemiah 1Ghz, software decoding is not an issue (30% to 
70% CPU, depending on the stream).

Sound :
* FF HW decoder : I don't really know, but the FF card can output SPDIF 
with the right connector, or you can use the bitstreamout plugin to use 
the mobo's sound card/connector.
* softdevice : AC/3 output is on the TODO, might be out soon
* vdr-xine / xineliboutput : might work as-is (depends on Xine and it's 
config, didn't test)

> What mpeg2 hardware decoder you recommend to use? The nexus mpeg2 
> decoder included in the dvb-s pci card or the mpeg2 decoder included in 
> the CLE266 chipset?

I'd definitely recommend CLE266 / software decoding. The details depend 
on your hardware setup : use Xine if you have or need X (either vdr-xine 
or xineliboutput), which nearly requires a keyboard/mouse. Use 
softdevice if you want a real set-top-box (no keyboard or mouse, just 
the remote).
Using the VGA-out of the mobo will give you full resolutions on LCD TV, 
even s-video out could be perfect in the next months.

> In the last option I have to use the softdevice plugin?
> Can I turn the FF card and use a cheaper budget card with the CLE266 hw 
> mpeg decoder with the same quality?
> Witch combination do you think is better?

I personnaly use lastest VDR + softdevice, which requires 
compiling/packaging skills. This is definately rewarding. The simplest 
way is to use the FF HW decoder. If you want to use the most hardware of 
you mobo, without compiling, go for vdr-xine or xineliboutput.
* vdr-xine : the plugin provides a socket through which a regular Xine 
conn connect and get the VDR output. There is recent network support 
(VDR on the server, Xine on a remote client). Problems can arise because 
you have two processes to manage (client + server), not counting the 
whole X)
* xineliboutput : the author didn't announce it on this ML (lastest 
version is quite recent). Directly link libxine in the VDR binary, thus 
no client/server problem, but still the whole Xine functionnality, and 
requires X.

> To many questions are unanswered in my head. Sorry about it and thanks 
> for your help.

You can still ask : the list is here for that.

-- 
NH