Mini-ITX

[jvonbokel]

After reading a bit about the networking capabilities of BTV 3.5, I'm beginning to think about building a Mini-ITX based computer for a "client" (or playback only) machine.

I did a search on the forums and found some out-dated posts about a lack of support for VIA's hardware encoding. Has there been any change in that?

Is anybody out there currently using Mini-ITX? If so, what type, and what are your impressions of the experience?

[ozone]

mini-itx.com

[jvonbokel]

I've been there... that's actually where I got the idea. I want to make a PC in an old NES box and use it as a BTV client and to run emulators (MAME, NES, and possibly SNES). But they don't seem to have anything there about BTV.

[barrysanders20]

I use a Shuttle XPC as my box. I'm glad I built it.

[jvonbokel]

Yeah, but can you fit it inside an old NES?

[ozone]

yes it can easily fit into an old nes box, there are some as small as a PSU

[jvonbokel]

An XPC can fit into an NES box? I guess that's possible, but do any of them have onboard video with hardware MPEG2 decoding?

[ozone]

yes there are ones with onbaord video with tv-out too.

[jvonbokel]

TV out is nice, but if it doesn't have hardware decoding, I'm gonna have to put a speedy CPU in it, which will probably overhead in an extremely crowded NES box.

[ozone]

i think they already have the cpus soldered in. (im talking about mini-itx's). i believe they dont alll come with them soldered in but i think alot of them are. there are talks of them using pent M's for them soon so that would increase the speed

[jvonbokel]

That leads me back to my original question, which is: Does BTV support the hardware MPEG2 decoding of a Mini-ITX processor? If so, it's a great candidate for a client, because everything you need is on the motherboard itself. If not, you'd need to either do it with software, which might drop frames, or add a decoder card, which would negate the size advantage.

[dtruwme]

I looked into building a mini-ITX system with one of VIA's EPIA M boards. The hardware mpeg2 decoding is done in the CLE266 northbridge chip. However, the problem has always been poor driver support from VIA. (check viaarena.com's mini-ITX forums). BTV uses some advanced features of DX9 (VMR) which is just not supported by the drivers VIA supplies. I abandoned my research into the mini-ITX route a few months ago when it became evident that VIA would not be supplying new drivers in a timely fashion. I'm not sure if the situation has changed.

One bright spot, BTV may support video overlay (in addition to VMR9) in the future. This would enable acceleration on older hardware (and mini-ITX) but will mean losing some of the nice transparency effects in the gui. This feature may or may not be in 3.5. Its a trade-off that many people would be willing to take.

Good luck with your search. I'd suggest looking over the recent posts at viaarena.com forums.

-dt