Re: [Freevo-users] Freevo box over Compact Flash.
the M-series epia boards have hardware decompression for Mpeg2 4. Linux today supports that hardware quite well out of the box. I can play media while using less than 30% of my CPU. I too have had an epia board die on me but that was my own fault, too many HDs in a case with not enough airflow. An additional (silent!) case fan solved that problem. Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Quoting Chris Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Rid you Freevo of all noise: 1. Buy a fanless epia 2. Buy a fanless psu, http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.222/.f?category=13 3. Net boot or boot off of a cf card or usb drive I'll pass on the EPIA. the fanless boards are unbelievably slow, and i prefer to be able to play things like H.264 on my Freevo system. Even the en-fanned, very loud EPIA boards are really, really slow. I've also personally seen 3 EPIA-M1's die right on my desk at work. I am not a fan of VIA boards after having worked at a company that shipped a few thousand of them. I think the division of VIA that makes the EPIA just doesn't get it. They want to position the board for multimedia, embedded, and industrial use - but it's multimedia capabilities are sub par at best, they're not reliable enough for embedded use, and they don't keep a board on the market long enough for anyone to trust it as an industrial solution. I am also not a fan of the power supplies that you end up using in mini-itx cases. Not all power supplies work well with all boards, and the quality control can be somewhat lacking. - Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.phpp=sourceforgeCID=DEVDEV ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users -- Paul Sijben mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Amersfoort, NL http://www.sijben.net tel:+31 334557522 fax:+31 33 4557523 - Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.phpp=sourceforgeCID=DEVDEV___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
Re: [Freevo-users] Freevo box over Compact Flash.
A mini ITX board with ytour chosen processor and then one of the really good cooling systems works great for silent HTPC building. I built one that was smaller by buying a very basic watercooling system from online and mounted the really small radiator in the back with a 120mm fan that was running on 9 volts instead of 12. Cant hear it run, processor is nice and cold even at full load. Now to find Hard drive coolers that are silent and the fans last more than 2 months. A small fan blowing on the bottom of a Hard drive makes an enormous difference. Also PSU's that do not have the fan in back but on the side and only a grille in back tend to be quiet because of the muffler effect of the parts in the power supply. Honestly though, even a noisy computer is not noticable when in use unless you like the volume way down low. the fans on my 42 plasma make more noise than a normal PC does. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Quoting Chris Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Rid you Freevo of all noise: 1. Buy a fanless epia 2. Buy a fanless psu, http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.222/.f?category=13 3. Net boot or boot off of a cf card or usb drive I'll pass on the EPIA. the fanless boards are unbelievably slow, and i prefer to be able to play things like H.264 on my Freevo system. Even the en-fanned, very loud EPIA boards are really, really slow. I've also personally seen 3 EPIA-M1's die right on my desk at work. I am not a fan of VIA boards after having worked at a company that shipped a few thousand of them. I think the division of VIA that makes the EPIA just doesn't get it. They want to position the board for multimedia, embedded, and industrial use - but it's multimedia capabilities are sub par at best, they're not reliable enough for embedded use, and they don't keep a board on the market long enough for anyone to trust it as an industrial solution. I am also not a fan of the power supplies that you end up using in mini-itx cases. Not all power supplies work well with all boards, and the quality control can be somewhat lacking. - Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.phpp=sourceforgeCID=DEVDEV ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users - Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.phpp=sourceforgeCID=DEVDEV ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
Re: [Freevo-users] Freevo box over Compact Flash.
On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 12:33:18 +0100 Paul Sijben [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: the M-series epia boards have hardware decompression for Mpeg2 4. Linux today supports that hardware quite well out of the box. I can play media while using less than 30% of my CPU. Got enough oomph for 720P hdtv? I sorta doubt it. The M series doesn't do mpeg4 acceleration. The EPIA-SP does. I too have had an epia board die on me but that was my own fault, too many HDs in a case with not enough airflow. An additional (silent!) case fan solved that problem. Yeah, I see them die for all kinds of reasons. And that itty bitty fan they stick on the cpu is anything but silent. I don't think they make a fanless board with the CN400 chipset. My objection to EPIA boards is basically this: 1: Relative high cost. I can get a microatx socket754 board with a sempron 3000+ and integrated geforce 6100 for $130 or an EPIA-SP with a 1.3ghz via cpu for $200. Where's the price/performance ratio?! 2: Limited, expensive cooling options. That itty bitty fan is LOUD. And where are my options for getting rid of the damn thing? 3: Limited expandability. 1 pci slot or, if i get a fancy case that costs an arm and a leg, two pci cards on a riser. Be still my heart. 4: No bit-perfect digital audio. They don't make a board that doesn't resample the digital audio to 48khz. This is a dealbreaker for me. I use my freevo system as an mp3 player frequently, and i can tell the difference between 44.1khz straight into my onkyo receiver, and 44.1khz resampled to 48khz. The truth is, after 2 years of working with them in large-scale commercial deployments, I'm frankly sick of the things. I've long since gotten over the Ooh! Tiny! aspect and come to realize that things that sit in my AV rack should be roughly AV component shaped, and i can do that with a full size ATX motherboard. That's currently what I'm using. I mean, look at it this way. For two years at work, 10 inches from my left elbow there's been an MSI 2.4ghz celeron and a VIA 1ghz Eden. They're roughly the same size and shape, but one of them is much louder and much slower and substantially more expensive than the other. I am disillusioned. I have three EPIA-M1 boards in various shapes of mini-cases brought home from the bone yard at work after we vowed to never buy VIA again. One of these days i need to sell them to someone who thinks they're nifty. fwiw I have nothing against their chipsets. They make some great chipsets. They even make some great audio chips. They just don't make a combination of parts on a mini-itx board that I'm interested in using. - Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.phpp=sourceforgeCID=DEVDEV ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
