Another "failed to setup x" issue...

[Normand_Nadon]

What do you mean? Like they would compete one with another
in the boot sequence?

I am right now in the process of building 2 HTPC (one for me and
one for my father) Mine would use the old AMD 1700+ I am talking
about since the beginning of this thread, and the second one
would be a brand new Micro ATX PC (my father wants blueray and
dual HD recording... I don't want to spend a lot on upgrading old
tech to fit his needs... if it can ever reach a suitable level of power
for his setup!)

I was looking at some AMD APUs and board, really cheap price for
interresting performance. The issue is that they all are running ATI
displays since they are AMD technology... Newer ATI cards are
supposed to be working with the latest Catalyst drivers for Linux.

What do you guys think about that? I also saw some onboard
GeForce setups but some say they are slower because the CPU and
GPU are figthing against each other for memory and ressources
on the board.

I already know that most of you will tell me to go with Geforce, but
I would like to have your opinion on newer ATI cards using the latest
Catalys drivers... Is it worth it?

[JaseP]

If you get sufficient RAM, you don't need to worry about onboard nVidia chipsets and shared memory. Again, if you have the option from the beginning you want to go with nVidia. ATI is a problem under Linux, generally, and under LinuxMCE specifically.  You might be able to get it working... after much crying and gnashing of teeth,... but you'll wished you hadn't. Before ATI, I would say to go with an embedded Intel chipset (other than the GMA500 or GMA600, PowerVR chipsets that don't work right in Linux). Intel chipsets in the GMA945 or its successors will be a good 2nd choice from nVidia chipsets.

The conflict between the HVR-1600 and the nVida chipsets is a somewhat well known. See here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1043884.html

Blueray support may not be there yet... I've taken a pass on blueray until it's better supported in Linux generally. I don't like the idea of re-purchasing all my media because of blueray, or getting a bunch of 4TB drives to store it all, either.

[Normand_Nadon]

Oh.. so blueray is not supported yet... Bad thing for me!
Would a B.R. drive work for DVD until full BlueRay support
is achieved?

please tell me that I read correctly and that full Hd Video
is supported! (1080p h264?)

[JaseP]

1080p is supported as long as your hardware supports it. But, they have to be supported devices to even work...

For Bluray:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/How_to_Select_Components_for_Your_LinuxMCE_Computers#Optical_Drives

If a blueray drive is a combo drive, I suppose it would work for DVD...