EPIA M/SP SageMC

edbmdave · #1 01-09-2006, 08:22 PM

Was curious how many people out there are interested in getting SageMC to work on an EPIA M/SP box? I am. I am going to start working through it and was going to document my findings. Let me know if you are interested.

I think this might be the perfect light full capability client for Sage, low power, small footprint, full capablities (DVD, DIVX, etc..) Throw in a SageTV Server on Linux, and the MVP for those places you don't need full client capabilities... Perfect, and no bloat.

Anyone else interested?

_Demo_ · #2 01-09-2006, 09:38 PM

I've worked previously on a few software for the epia/cle266 so let me know if you have questions. In theory it should be possible to obtain reasonable quality tv output on them.

The epia boards should be fast enough for basic server functions though they are limited to 1 pci (or 2 with extension)

_Demo_

edbmdave · #3 01-09-2006, 09:54 PM

I think the biggest hurdle will be the CL266 or CN400 video.

Will start installing and figuring it out tomorrow.

nielm · #4 01-10-2006, 02:37 AM

I had sage 2.1 working as a server on an EPIA M10000. I needed to use Cyberlink powerDVD 4 as a decoder with hardware accelleration enabled, and overlay renderer so that I could take advantage of the CLE266 MPEG2 decoding accelleration.

Recording and serving to a remote client was fine.

Mpeg2 and DVD playback was OK.

Xvid/DivX was not OK unless it was 1/2 frame (320x240), and even then it was very high CPU usage.

Some of the complex menus (TV Guide) were a bit slow though.

I believe the later CN400 graphics chip has Mpeg4 accelleration, but you will need an Mpeg4 decoder that supports it (and I am not sure if this exists).

briands · #5 01-11-2006, 03:10 PM

Would a system like this have a snowballs chance of playing HD? To me that would be the only reason to go with anything other than an MVP.

Oh... forgot about local DVD player...

_Demo_ · #6 01-11-2006, 03:12 PM

Not on any cle266 based board. I have never heard of succesful hd playback on cn400 either.

_Demo_

edbmdave · #7 01-11-2006, 03:37 PM

Isn't HD playback more a function of the processing horsepower than the graphics chipset at this point? I know some have mpeg4 assisted decoding? I thought MS was saying you need at least a 3G CPU for it.

Ether way I wouldn't think it would work for true HD, Cn400 should be very capable of good qaulity DVIX and MPEG2, but with only 1G or 1.3G of CPU, I don't see how this would be a viable HD playback (at full capability). The CN400 does support the video resolution though.

For me the ability to have DVD and DivX playback is sufficient motivation. While HD is available, I still think we are too early into it for me to adopt it. Too much can change, and too much is softly defined. Too bleeding edge in the DIY market. The SD market is solid. With what I understand about "true" HD, until the cable card is available, and the video format agreed upon (like MPEG2 is) and standardized there are a lot of unknowns. HDDVD, CableCard, DRM, is 100MB really going to work for HD, or do I really need to go to 1GB? Can Wireless 802.11G do it for me? if current (or how many of) current HD Monitors will be able to playback some content, etc.. etc.. etc... Will I be able to use CableCard outside of Windows Vista,e tc...

I know I will be content for a couple years and can let the standards mature. For me Good playback on a 16:9 resolution system will be good enough. Let me watch my DVDs and DivX in a good format, and enjoy recorded content, but I am also one of those people that if i really enjoy a show, I will go buy the DVD, so I don't worry to much about capturing HD broadcast for archiving or continual replay.

AboveUnrefined · #8 01-21-2006, 08:59 PM

I would absolutely love to utilize the mpeg2 acceleration in my MII-10000 board using a diskless system with Sage Linux...

How hard would this be to implement? Would the system even need the accelerations?

AndyS · #9 01-24-2006, 01:42 PM

According to this post on the VIA Arena, GenToo can support the MPEG Decoder for the CLE266.

I'm interested in using one of these boards as a SageClient - would one of the fanless boards (M6000?) be okay (assuming MPEG decoding could be activated)? I'd assume that there would be enough horsepower for this but I'm interested in feedback from those who may have tried it.

Andy.

AboveUnrefined · #10 01-26-2006, 05:56 PM

I think that it'd be fine as a server but only OK as a client if you are utilizing the MPEG2 acceleration... 600mhz is really pushing it but with tweaking I think you could get smooth playback as a client.

jhh · #11 01-30-2006, 09:19 AM

Hi,

I had the M9000 running as a client and have the same experience as Nielm said on the 10000. Picture library was not good either.

Now I have the SP13000 and DIVX works as well now. Problem is that subtitles don't survive recompression very well.

Trick is finding a decoder that supports the hardware video accelaration.

EPIA usually has only one PCI slot so that limits its use as a server unless you go USB.

Jan

LostInSpace · #12 02-16-2006, 05:50 AM

I'd like such a solution. Even with the Linux version...

AndyS · #13 02-16-2006, 04:17 PM

I just received two ME6000s and I have the case on its way. My plan is to use diskless boot to create a silent client. I plan to use Windows for all the server-side stuff (incl. the Sage Server, NFS, DHCP and BOOTP) so this will be an interesting exercise. I believe but can't yet confirm that it should be possible to use the on-board MPEG decoder so I'll be playing with that as well.

As and when I have something working I'll post some feedback.

Andy.

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