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I used kubuntu with a hauppage pvr-150 mce, you can use a mce pvr-500 if you need two tuners, pvr-350 should work as well. Only real problem I have is the sound cuts out and goes to static if I leave it on for a few days (probably a driver issue), other than that it pretty much golden. To setup mythtv I used the community docs on the ubuntu website and some of the mythtv wiki.

Heres my specs:
Board: Via SP13000
Ram: 1GB Corsair XMS DDR 400
Drives: DVD-RW IDE and a 320GB SATA HD
Capture Card: Hauppage pvr-150 mce
OS: Kubuntu Fiesty
PSU: PicoPSU 120W
Fan: 1 120mm case fan

You might want to replace the thermal grease with arctic silver if you build it.
I might try hdtv when the new via board with pci-express 16x slot comes out so I can use a beefier videocard.

http://www.pchdtv.com/
http://epiacenter.com/modules.php?name=News&file=a rticle&sid=1147
Cheers

They figure you'll look up that information, their biggest concern was spacing out a three page review over ten pages.

That said, Via normally names their boards with a number that is 10x the CPU speed. The board is named the N8000, so that would indicate 800 MHz, like all the 130nm passive MiniITX boards. The benchmarks agree.

It's really quite sad that NanoITX only uses the old crappy CN400 chipset with the older 130nm Nehemiah core. I mean, the 90nm rev still sucks, but at least they can clock it higher, and at least the bus isn't holding it back. You would think after all this delay they'd be able to put their new C7 platform in NanoITX form-factor.

800 MHz on a CN400 chipset is about the performance of a PII 350.

It comes with all the drivers you need for your Epia mainboards:

Some impressions:

http://www.epiacenter.com/modules.php?name=Content &pa=showpage&pid=82&page=6

The epiOS support forums:

http://www.epios.net/

A lot of users already combined it with MythTV.

There is already a special Linux OS for the Epia mainboards. Some impressions can be found here:

http://www.epiacenter.com/modules.php?name=Content &pa=showpage&pid=82&page=6

I have one of these (1.2GHz) and with 1 large HDD, encoder card, network, DVD etc - it idles at less than 20W and maxes at about 60 (encoding, playback, DVD all going, CPU 100%). Burst power when switched on seems to be about 72. This is less than the processor alone on a high spec box.

This will only work with non-CPU intensive operations. However IO seems to be pretty good on these boxes, so an IO bound server would probably not suffer too greatly using a VIA mobo.

For years I worked on a viable PC-for-the-car. This is before Microsoft had their operating system (failure) for car stereos, and before the CarPC was even a thought by the designer. My biggest problem was finding a cheap, small and capable 12DC-DC power supply. Even a few years ago they were basically impossible to find.

I'm glad to see there is now a market for these power supplies (although I'm sure this isn't for car applications). I wonder how efficient it is -- and how much heat it gives off. The article was a bit...sparse.

I miss my old car PC -- 8 years ago it could do so much more than anything else I've seen. Considering how much time I wasted, I wish I kept all the software and code.

A couple more links to the picoPSU:

http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.13/it.A /id.417/.f

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/01/07/pico_psu/

http://www.epiacenter.com/modules.php?name=News&fi le=article&sid=718

http://www.realtechnews.com/page/2/

And, of course: http://www.digg.com/hardware/World_s_smallest_powe r_supply_-_the_picoPSU

I got sick of not having what you described, so I partnered with a company to make them. (obviously I have a commercial interest).

You can see one of our cases reviewed on EPIAcenter.com right now.. I think it's pretty close to what you want, and if it isn't, a few minutes on the phone can have it customized any way you want.

Boot off flash and NFS mount a partition to a server in another room and you have your perfectly silent PC.

The power supply is a hybrid; get a DC/DC converter from a company like mini-box.com, then get one of their external notebook-style power adapters.

VIA EPIA SP13000 Mini-ITX Motherboard.

"To Summarise: The EPIA-SP 13000 is an important update to the VIA EPIA range improving the 3D graphics performance of the system. ... this is the best VIA EPIA system yet - highly capable as an office machine, or entertainment platform, even capable of the odd game or two. The compact size means it's suitable for a variety of systems, a compact cube case, or a custom solution. The extremely reliable system allows you to use the board as a permenantly switched on server / router / firewall / etc. The number of ports and expansion possibilities lets you customise the storage solution whether you want SATA RAID, or numerous IDE hard drives."

And here's how someone built a MythTV on one.

But if you're going to setup a MythTV on one, I would use the minimyth custom MythTV front end.

Honestly - you guys are all talking about putting big drives in a tower, or having P4's vs encoders, blah blah blah. When you finally get your system up and running you are going to have a loud hum, a whine, lots of clicks and occasional buzzes when watching tv or movies or listening to music.

Noise makes a difference. Design for noise first. As many people have pointed out, any old PC can be a myth box. Any old grunty PC can be a MCE box. Thats easy. To have one that you want to share your living room with? Thats another matter.

Here's a test - put your P4 home PC in your living room and then watch a DVD. Notice the noise? I sure did.

Best choice I made was designing around noise first, heat second (because of reducing noise) and then CPU power/memory/HDD size third. Trust me, you wont regret it.

So what can you do...

• Use as lower powered PC as you can get away with. I suggest a Via EDEN fanless CPU.
• Use an external power supply - no fan. The EPIA mobos require very little power.
• Use a quiet disk and optical drive
• Use a case designed to deal with heat and look good in your stereo rack.

Here's the link to the SX-64 if you're interested Impressive stuff.

G4 Cubes, Ammo Boxes, Gas Cans, and Guitars, to name a few...

G4 Cubes, Ammo Boxes, Gas Cans, and Guitars, to name a few...

G4 Cubes, Ammo Boxes, Gas Cans, and Guitars, to name a few...

Not to mention the VIA EPIA MII 12000 is as slow as molasses.

huge problem of only being able to view the picture from directly ahead

This is why I hate the laptop based frame projects. They will always have a substandard display- #1, laptops are designed to be viewed from a very specfic angle, and #2, folks will typically used older, even more crappy laptops for such a project.

I made a micro ITX based frame using a very nice samsung open frame LCD kit. Much nicer than a laptop based frame.

The upcoming Nano-ITX [epiacenter.com] boards should offer even more flexibility for this type of design.. It's smaller, takes less power, and runs cooler. It also takes DC power, so you don't need to mess with the ATX -> DC/DC converter stuff that the Mini-ITX requires (although, there is supposed to be a DC Mini-ITX board coming out).

The down-side is that these have been announced for several months, but are still not available for purchase. hk

The upcoming Nano-ITX [epiacenter.com] boards should offer even more flexibility for this type of design.. It's smaller, takes less power, and runs cooler. It also takes DC power, so you don't need to mess with the ATX -> DC/DC converter stuff that the Mini-ITX requires (although, there is supposed to be a DC Mini-ITX board coming out).

The down-side is that these have been announced for several months, but are still not available for purchase. qsv

The one I built.

Expensive, but very professional looking and a blast to build. I started off with the "I'll do it cheap" mentality, but it started going so well that I threw out the idea of being frugile. Now it is literally a centerpiece of my living room and something every guest raves about, instead of an old frame that has some burnt out components in it that only geeks will appreciate.

A note to those interested: your display will absolutely make or break this project. I lucked out- got a samsung display kit with great specs off ebay. Also, I ended up changing over to Damn SMall Linux. Works great and boots super fast.

The upcoming Nano-ITX boards should offer even more flexibility for this type of design.. It's smaller, takes less power, and runs cooler. It also takes DC power, so you don't need to mess with the ATX -> DC/DC converter stuff that the Mini-ITX requires (although, there is supposed to be a DC Mini-ITX board coming out).

The down-side is that these have been announced for several months, but are still not available for purchase.

The upcoming Nano-ITX boards should offer even more flexibility for this type of design.. It's smaller, takes less power, and runs cooler. It also takes DC power, so you don't need to mess with the ATX -> DC/DC converter stuff that the Mini-ITX requires (although, there is supposed to be a DC Mini-ITX board coming out).

The down-side is that these have been announced for several months, but are still not available for purchase.

There are Pentium-M boards.

I'm not aware of any Athlon-based boards, but mostly because I'm satisfied with my Via-based M10000 board.

Arguably though, early adopters are the only ones with PC-based 'digital convergence' systems. They are based on expensive motherboards and fast, hot chips. As a result they are either noisy, or a lot of money was spent to make them quiet. The market is waiting for a small, quiet, powerful (in relative terms) platform.
The Via Epia boards are almost there but are just a little short of processor horsepower to handle DivX decoding (and other processor intensive operations). The rumours are that there will be a 1.2Ghz Via C3 processor on a new core revision (C5P) out shortly. C3's provide roughly 50% of the horsepower of a similarly clocked P3 in the current core so at 1.2 Ghz (with some potential improvements in the new version core) you are almost at the level where you have a cool, quiet platform with enough horsepower to be a serious media-center PC.
Of course, Via are rumoured to have some very cool stuff on the horizon, included a possible dual-cpu board and a new processor codenamed 'Esther' to be produced in IBM's fab.
Maybe this is what I am waiting for? So perhaps this is the year when digital convergence becomes a reality for the masses?

RTFA you idiot, what do you think the small blue connector here is ?

17x17 cm has been the standard itx board size, this one's a wee bit smaller.

From epiacenter.com:
Size: 12x12cm

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Google - it's not just for breakfast any more.

Erik