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General => Users => Topic started by: jtgamble on April 01, 2008, 05:57:36 am

Title: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: jtgamble on April 01, 2008, 05:57:36 am
What is recommended for getting 1080p from a media director? I'm trying to do as small a box as possible to keep it hidden behind the TV. My friend is saying I'll need a video card to do the output, but are there any motherboards with on-board video that will do 1080p decently?

Thanks :)
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: cobradevil on April 01, 2008, 07:34:24 am
Hello,

You could try a mainboard with integrated nvidia graphics!

e.g. http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=567&l4=0&model=1944&modelmenu=1 (http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=567&l4=0&model=1944&modelmenu=1)

But you have to keep in mind that no video vendor has realy good accelerated video playback for linux so the processor has to be fast to process 1080p streams!

I am waiting for intel x3100 graphics chips to be supported with the vaapi from intel http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/vaapi (http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/vaapi)

They promise to give accelerated video playback for:
MPEG-2
MPEG-4
ASP/H.263
MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
VC-1/VMW3

With kind regards

William van de Velde
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: JimmyGosling on April 01, 2008, 05:03:40 pm
tkmedia has been successful running 1080p with this board as well as some of his own tweaks to the xorg.conf file in the 0710b4 release.  You can speak with him directly on the IRC if you have additional questions.

I have the same board but was unable to get it working in 0710b3.
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: jtgamble on April 02, 2008, 02:56:36 am
Awesome, thanks :) I'll look into it...now finding a nice tiny case to use with it :)
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: tkmedia on April 02, 2008, 05:33:26 am
mine is an ABIT AN M2HD not a asus      but am running at 1080p with alpha blending stop by for a chat if u need more info
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: nite_man on April 02, 2008, 08:51:55 am
MM200 (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Convergenthome (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Convergenthome)) should be ok for HDTV. I didn't try it but Andrew promised that its MD supports at least 720p.

One of the best options for MD can be AppleTV. I have one with installed Kubuntu 7.10 but I still cannot boot it from TFTP server.
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: jtgamble on April 02, 2008, 08:55:00 am
Interesting.....AppleTV. How easy is it to get working with MCE as a director? And you need to actually install the director software correct? You can't boot it via the network? Also, it doesn't do 1080p does it? Just 1080i or 720p?

And Convergent Home won't ship to me...stupid product liability in the US :P
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: nite_man on April 02, 2008, 09:50:18 am
Interesting.....AppleTV. How easy is it to get working with MCE as a director? And you need to actually install the director software correct? You can't boot it via the network? Also, it doesn't do 1080p does it? Just 1080i or 720p?

And Convergent Home won't ship to me...stupid product liability in the US :P

You can investigate aOpen miniPC (945VDR, for example). I suspect it has similar hardware as MM200.

To use AppleTV as MD it should be install MD software on its HDD or it should be boot via network. The possibility to use diskled MD was dropped in 0710. So, I'm trying to boot my AppleTV via network but without luck. There is a project - Mythic Beasts (http://mythic-beasts.com/resources/appletv/walk-through.html (http://mythic-beasts.com/resources/appletv/walk-through.html)) which gives a way to install Linux on AppleTV and boot it via HDD or TFTP server. Have a look it. Maybe it'll be interesting for you as well.
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: jtgamble on April 02, 2008, 09:52:59 am
Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at it. I'm just a bit discouraged that AppleTV doesn't seem to support 1080p.
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: totallymaxed on April 02, 2008, 12:56:08 pm
MM200 (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Convergenthome (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Convergenthome)) should be ok for HDTV. I didn't try it but Andrew promised that its MD supports at least 720p.

One of the best options for MD can be AppleTV. I have one with installed Kubuntu 7.10 but I still cannot boot it from TFTP server.

Yes the MM200 works fine at 720p and we hope soon to confirm 1080p too shortly - under UI2 with Overlay

Andrew
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: totallymaxed on April 02, 2008, 04:24:48 pm
Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at it. I'm just a bit discouraged that AppleTV doesn't seem to support 1080p.

We have been testing today a new AMD based unit with onboard ATI x1250 based graphics and after installing xorg-driver-fglrx_7.1.0-8.37.6+2.6.22.4-14 .9_amd64.deb and manually tweaking xorg.conf we managed to get UI2 with Overlay working nicely too. AvWizard needs some additional work in its con'f to correctly configure the ATI driver/X but the basic driver support is looking great.

Andrew
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: nite_man on April 02, 2008, 08:23:57 pm
Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at it. I'm just a bit discouraged that AppleTV doesn't seem to support 1080p.

We have been testing today a new AMD based unit with onboard ATI x1250 based graphics and after installing xorg-driver-fglrx_7.1.0-8.37.6+2.6.22.4-14 .9_amd64.deb and manually tweaking xorg.conf we managed to get UI2 with Overlay working nicely too. AvWizard needs some additional work in its con'f to correctly configure the ATI driver/X but the basic driver support is looking great.

Andrew

Good news! The next step is supporting of transparency ;)
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: jtgamble on April 03, 2008, 12:27:05 am
Yes the MM200 works fine at 720p and we hope soon to confirm 1080p too shortly - under UI2 with Overlay

Andrew

Mind if I ask what case and motherboard you use for the MM200?
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: jtgamble on April 03, 2008, 05:41:35 am
Does anybody know if any of the Jetway Micro ITX motherboards are working with MCE? Has anybody tried them?

Something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153077
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: totallymaxed on April 03, 2008, 10:44:05 am
Yes the MM200 works fine at 720p and we hope soon to confirm 1080p too shortly - under UI2 with Overlay

Andrew

Mind if I ask what case and motherboard you use for the MM200?

The MM200 is built for us by a contract manufacturer in Asia. The motherboard is custom designed for the MM200 but is based on a standard laptop Intel i945 chipset (GMA950 GPU). The case is also custom design/manufactured for us as part of the MM200 and is not available separately.

Andrew

Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: totallymaxed on April 03, 2008, 10:53:50 am
Does anybody know if any of the Jetway Micro ITX motherboards are working with MCE? Has anybody tried them?

Something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153077

Hi,

Well I cant say we have tried that specific motherboard but we have a lot of experience with various i945 based boards and I cant say that we have ever found one that was a problem. This board has the GMA950 GPU and that will currently run UI2 with Overlay very nicely in our experience (we have worked hard to make this happen with the LinuxMCE guys).

Andrew
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: jtgamble on April 04, 2008, 12:54:17 am
I kinda thought that you were using custom ordered equipment, but thought I'd ask anyway. I like the case a lot :)

Glad to hear that GMA950 is being well supported, as it just made my search for a media director setup much easier!
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: nite_man on April 07, 2008, 01:37:55 pm
Everex miniPC looks similar to MM200 - http://tinyurl.com/2vrhqx (http://tinyurl.com/2vrhqx). Probably it's created in the same case.
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: totallymaxed on April 07, 2008, 02:51:40 pm
Everex miniPC looks similar to MM200 - http://tinyurl.com/2vrhqx (http://tinyurl.com/2vrhqx). Probably it's created in the same case.

Yes thats using a similar case but an older motherboard variant.

Andrew
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: nite_man on April 10, 2008, 09:54:17 am
Quote
Yes thats using a similar case but an older motherboard variant.

I see. But in any case the Everex miniPC can be use it USA where the MM200 cannot be shipped as I know.

BTW, ASUS is gonna release its version of miniPC - http://tinyurl.com/5hpajk (http://tinyurl.com/5hpajk). It has nVidia 8800, stylish design, it's quiet and compact. Let's see when it'll be available for buying.
Title: Re: 1080p for a Media Director
Post by: totallymaxed on April 10, 2008, 12:30:46 pm
Quote
Yes thats using a similar case but an older motherboard variant.

I see. But in any case the Everex miniPC can be use it USA where the MM200 cannot be shipped as I know.

BTW, ASUS is gonna release its version of miniPC - http://tinyurl.com/5hpajk (http://tinyurl.com/5hpajk). It has nVidia 8800, stylish design, it's quiet and compact. Let's see when it'll be available for buying.

Yes I think for US based LinuxMCE users the Everex MiniPC is worth testing. However we had a number of problems with overheating on that motherboard in testing and decided not to use it.

The ASUS looks very nice indeed. See here for more info; http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=10836 (http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=10836)

Andrew