[linux-dvb] Re: Multimedia PC with budget card

[Denis Cheong <denis@denisandyuki.net>]

Dr. Juergen Pfennig wrote:

> since a year I am using an Asus Pundit (which has a Sis651 chipset with a 
> quite good video output). 
I am using the same thing, and agree, it's a great little box and has a 
high WAF, which is always good.  You can pick them up very cheaply now.

> The SIS X11 drivers from Thomas Winischhofer allow 
> me to adjust the image so that it fills the screen, has optimal colours and 
> contrast and is sharp (most filters turned off). 
This I can't agree with, the colours / contrast is good, you need to 
ensure the deflicker is enabled, but the Linux drivers' control of the 
S-Video out size aren't perfect - with the Windows drivers I can get it 
to fill my TV nicely with a good amount of overscan both vertically and 
horizontally, but in Linux it will not fill the screen horizontally.  A 
bit of driver source code tweaking seems to be required here.

> I am not using xine but mplayer which is more stable. But xine would also be fine.
>  
mplayer works well for me too.

> I really run X11 on the system, but the screen resolution is set to 740x572 
> (or something close) to match PAL/625 lines/50 Hz. Menus and text remain 
> readable because set the dpi values of X11 to an appropriate value, which 
> works nice with most X11-Toolskits (including qt/KDE).
>  
That would be 720x576, which is full screen PAL in just about anybody's 
language.  The overscan however will wreak havoc on the output if your 
video is not deinterlaced (because it will modify the actual number of 
lines output).  I'm not all that impressed with the TV output for these 
reasons but I think there's some tweaking that can be done.

> Although I am using Suse (currently 9.1) I am sure that I could use at least 
> Debian instead (no Suse Woodo included). The trick to get the main menu up 
> 45s after power on is to run Linux in Run-Level 4 and to tweak the start-up 
> mechanism a bit.
>  
Gentoo works well.

The pundit supports ACPI so you can send it to sleep and wake it up in 
only a few seconds, why not do that?  I never turn mine off anyway.

> The Gui runs on a half-initialized KDE and is based on kDialog. You can get a 
> full KDE session if you want (to browse or to read E-Mail). I will start soon 
> to integrate my zapdvb software into the set-top pc. Zapdvb (see 
> http://www.j-pfennig.de/zapdvb/news.html) allows life TV or Radio playing, 
> timed or periodic recording, file CD/DVB playback and video editing. 
> Currently the set-top software includes little documentation but it is 
> functional, see (http://www.j-pfennig.de/ZapTvOut/index.html).
>  
Haven't used your software, I use MythTV which is very mature and works 
well on the Pundit subject to some tweaking with video modes.

Some other gotchas that you missed:

1. The PCI card slots in the Pundit are not *quite* full height.  Cards 
that extend past the top of the backplane will *really* stretch the 
space limits in the Pundit.  The Technotrend / Hauppauge cards are such 
cards (and so are the CI cards), so you will have a sh*t of a time 
getting them to fit into a Pundit.  They will fit, I managed to do it 
(and the case even fits back together), but you will need to disassemble 
far more than was originally intended to be disassembled to do it.

2. The Pundit comes configured with automatic fan speed set "off" in the 
BIOS - this makes the CPU fan run at full speed all the time, which is 
quite noisy.  The first thing you'll want to do for a HTPC is to turn 
this automatic fan speed setting "on".

3. The digital media card readers do not work in Linux.  The PCMCIA slot 
does however.  Lots more info can be found if you do a search for pundit 
and linux.

4. The major limitation of the Pundit for me is that the S/PDIF optical 
output is on the *front* of the case, rather than the back of the case.  
So despite the sexy and sleek looking front of the system being on 
display, I currently have the front flap open and an optical cable 
running out from the front to take the digital audio output to my 
amplifier.  Next time I disassemble the thing I will be removing the 
motherboard, desoldering the S/PDIF socket and moving it to the back of 
the case where it should have been in the first place.

Other than that, it's a great option for a HTPC - especially with the 
price point that it's now available at, when you need a couple of PCI 
slots there's not much else that beats it.