linux as a HTPC

ssjwizard · 11-19-06, 02:15 AM

ok so the box im writing this from currently only has a linux install and i dont plan to change that. i dont need HD support. id like to add a sound card with either optical or composite output to connect to my stereo head unit.
its running a nvidia FX 5200 with SVGA SVideo and DVI outputs. AXP2100+ and 256mb of DDR. mostly i want to use it for playing my mp3 collection and to replace my dieing dvd player. ofcourse id want to be able to play some of other digital media. anyways the questions at hand is what distro(suse 10.1 currently) would you recomend, and what hardware upgrades would you sugest(nothing major SC RAM HD is no issue its got 120GB and access to my file server with 750gb more)

As allways the communitys input is allways greatly apreciated.

UnseenMenace · 11-19-06, 09:51 AM

http://www.mythtv.org/

This may be what your looking for

klingens · 11-19-06, 09:57 AM

If you want to watch any form of video, get a hauppauge pvr250 and remove the FX5200. It's TV-out chip is better than the alternatives and it's good for recording TV too.

ssjwizard · 11-19-06, 12:23 PM

thats a prety cool bit of software there. im definatly going to bookmark it. while i wasnt realy planing on using it as a DVR of sorts mostly for playback of DVDs and digital audio files. im definatly going to look into it. does anyone have a sugestion on a sound card that has digital outs i could use?

ssjwizard · 11-21-06, 06:17 PM

anyone recomend a SC?

goofnrox · 11-21-06, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by klingens

If you want to watch any form of video, get a hauppauge pvr250 and remove the FX5200. It's TV-out chip is better than the alternatives and it's good for recording TV too.

I think you mean the PVR-350. It has the video out.

I use the Knoppmyth variety of MythTV and it works great. I use an old SB Live Value with coax digital out for audio. Worked right out of the box without any tweaking.

As far as video, I use a FX-5200, and have 2x PVR-150 for recording. The FX-5200 is well supported, and from what I've read is much easier to set up under linux than a PVR-350. It also has hardware acell support for MPEG decoding, for DVD's or HD should you ever decide to go that route. I don't know that the quality would be any better with one or the other. The 5200 looks great with S-video on my TV.

ssjwizard · 11-21-06, 06:35 PM

thanks for the input. come this spring im going to look into it. originaly i wasnt looking for DVR style support but myth TV seems to be a really nice application suite so i think ill try it out. probably get a tuner card. if the 5200 will provide decent quality output then i likely wont replace it. as i mentioned earlier im not concerned with HDTV quality images therefor i likely wouldnt notice the diffrence between the nvidia output and the hauppage.

kaltag · 11-21-06, 06:40 PM

Add another vote for MythTV. You can use knoppmyth to try it before you decide to blow out the current install or there are usually pretty good howto's for the major distros on installing mythtv.

fabulouscoops · 11-21-06, 06:41 PM

http://forum.byopvr.com/dvr/index.ph...24a0&board=8.0

ssjwizard · 11-21-06, 08:49 PM

good info. do any of you guys use a spacific brand of cable/sat receivers. i noticed on the mythtv page that it says it can control your receiver via usb, firewire, and IR. while ir is going to work absolutly it lacks some features.

11-19-06, 02:15 AM	Thread Starter #1
ssjwizard Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Rio Rancho, NM	linux as a HTPC ok so the box im writing this from currently only has a linux install and i dont plan to change that. i dont need HD support. id like to add a sound card with either optical or composite output to connect to my stereo head unit. its running a nvidia FX 5200 with SVGA SVideo and DVI outputs. AXP2100+ and 256mb of DDR. mostly i want to use it for playing my mp3 collection and to replace my dieing dvd player. ofcourse id want to be able to play some of other digital media. anyways the questions at hand is what distro(suse 10.1 currently) would you recomend, and what hardware upgrades would you sugest(nothing major SC RAM HD is no issue its got 120GB and access to my file server with 750gb more) As allways the communitys input is allways greatly apreciated. __________________ Life is what you make of it, we exist for the sole purpose of existing. Dont waste the universe efforts! All statements, imagery, and ideas contained within any posts are merely retold tales of fictional acts by a figment of the universe imagination. So your looking for an AMD FX motherboard, things you need to know. Whats the max safe temps/volts for an FX? Green Gorilla, CM 690-II nVidia, FX 8320, GTX 670, liquid cooled Liquid Fusion, CM 690-II, A8+6670 Dual GFX, liquid cooled Extreme evaporative water loop 450mm^3 water cooled beast - Incomplete Do you love Cartoons and Anime? for the secret to building your collection PM me.
	QUOTE Thanks

11-19-06, 09:51 AM	#2
UnseenMenace UnseenModerator Join Date: Apr 2001	http://www.mythtv.org/ This may be what your looking for __________________ one M15x is never enough
	QUOTE Thanks

11-19-06, 09:57 AM	#3
klingens Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Xanadu	If you want to watch any form of video, get a hauppauge pvr250 and remove the FX5200. It's TV-out chip is better than the alternatives and it's good for recording TV too.
	QUOTE Thanks

11-19-06, 12:23 PM	Thread Starter #4
ssjwizard Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Rio Rancho, NM	thats a prety cool bit of software there. im definatly going to bookmark it. while i wasnt realy planing on using it as a DVR of sorts mostly for playback of DVDs and digital audio files. im definatly going to look into it. does anyone have a sugestion on a sound card that has digital outs i could use? __________________ Life is what you make of it, we exist for the sole purpose of existing. Dont waste the universe efforts! All statements, imagery, and ideas contained within any posts are merely retold tales of fictional acts by a figment of the universe imagination. So your looking for an AMD FX motherboard, things you need to know. Whats the max safe temps/volts for an FX? Green Gorilla, CM 690-II nVidia, FX 8320, GTX 670, liquid cooled Liquid Fusion, CM 690-II, A8+6670 Dual GFX, liquid cooled Extreme evaporative water loop 450mm^3 water cooled beast - Incomplete Do you love Cartoons and Anime? for the secret to building your collection PM me. Last edited by ssjwizard; 11-21-06 at 06:16 PM.
	QUOTE Thanks

11-21-06, 06:17 PM	Thread Starter #5
ssjwizard Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Rio Rancho, NM	anyone recomend a SC? __________________ Life is what you make of it, we exist for the sole purpose of existing. Dont waste the universe efforts! All statements, imagery, and ideas contained within any posts are merely retold tales of fictional acts by a figment of the universe imagination. So your looking for an AMD FX motherboard, things you need to know. Whats the max safe temps/volts for an FX? Green Gorilla, CM 690-II nVidia, FX 8320, GTX 670, liquid cooled Liquid Fusion, CM 690-II, A8+6670 Dual GFX, liquid cooled Extreme evaporative water loop 450mm^3 water cooled beast - Incomplete Do you love Cartoons and Anime? for the secret to building your collection PM me.
	QUOTE Thanks

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11-21-06, 06:35 PM	Thread Starter #7
ssjwizard Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Rio Rancho, NM	thanks for the input. come this spring im going to look into it. originaly i wasnt looking for DVR style support but myth TV seems to be a really nice application suite so i think ill try it out. probably get a tuner card. if the 5200 will provide decent quality output then i likely wont replace it. as i mentioned earlier im not concerned with HDTV quality images therefor i likely wouldnt notice the diffrence between the nvidia output and the hauppage. __________________ Life is what you make of it, we exist for the sole purpose of existing. Dont waste the universe efforts! All statements, imagery, and ideas contained within any posts are merely retold tales of fictional acts by a figment of the universe imagination. So your looking for an AMD FX motherboard, things you need to know. Whats the max safe temps/volts for an FX? Green Gorilla, CM 690-II nVidia, FX 8320, GTX 670, liquid cooled Liquid Fusion, CM 690-II, A8+6670 Dual GFX, liquid cooled Extreme evaporative water loop 450mm^3 water cooled beast - Incomplete Do you love Cartoons and Anime? for the secret to building your collection PM me.
	QUOTE Thanks

11-21-06, 06:40 PM	#8
kaltag Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Boise Idaho	Add another vote for MythTV. You can use knoppmyth to try it before you decide to blow out the current install or there are usually pretty good howto's for the major distros on installing mythtv. __________________ `______ /l ,[____], l---L –0lllllll0- ()_) ()_)--o-)_)
	QUOTE Thanks

11-21-06, 06:41 PM	#9
fabulouscoops Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: New Jersey, USA	http://forum.byopvr.com/dvr/index.ph...24a0&board=8.0 __________________ i5 2500K@4.53; Asus P8P67 deluxe; 8 GB G.Skill DDR3 1600; OCZ 60 GB SSD; 2x500 GB Caviar; HD6950 E8500 @3.6 GHz; Asus P5Q Pro Turbo; 4 GB OCZ Reaper DDR2 1066; 2 x 74 GB Raptor E6750 @3.4 GHz; Abit IP35, 4 GB OCZ DDR2 800; 60 Agility SSD; 2x120 GB Caviar; 250 GB Caviar; HD4870 Opteron 175 Skt 939 @2.9 GHz; DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D; Zalman 9500; HD3850; 2x1024 G.Skill DDR500; 200 GB WD E4400 @3 GHz, Abit AB9 pro, Gigabyte 7300 GT silent; 2GB Supertalent PC5400; 3x36 Raptors RAID 0:5 P4 3.0c Skt 478 @ 3.4 GHz; Abit IC7g; 1 GB Mushkin PC3200 FX5200, 20 GB WD; 200 GB Maxtor; PVR-150, Wifi, SB Live!
	QUOTE Thanks

11-21-06, 08:49 PM	Thread Starter #10
ssjwizard Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Rio Rancho, NM	good info. do any of you guys use a spacific brand of cable/sat receivers. i noticed on the mythtv page that it says it can control your receiver via usb, firewire, and IR. while ir is going to work absolutly it lacks some features. __________________ Life is what you make of it, we exist for the sole purpose of existing. Dont waste the universe efforts! All statements, imagery, and ideas contained within any posts are merely retold tales of fictional acts by a figment of the universe imagination. So your looking for an AMD FX motherboard, things you need to know. Whats the max safe temps/volts for an FX? Green Gorilla, CM 690-II nVidia, FX 8320, GTX 670, liquid cooled Liquid Fusion, CM 690-II, A8+6670 Dual GFX, liquid cooled Extreme evaporative water loop 450mm^3 water cooled beast - Incomplete Do you love Cartoons and Anime? for the secret to building your collection PM me.
	QUOTE Thanks

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