VIA C3 CPU
It isnt a celeron, it is a via chip, and it should be plenty fast to play a movie. You keep mentioning projects that can play diff formats. But it is already done. Gstreamer does just about everything you are saying. And imho it would be a waste of time to work with anything else.
It isnt a celeron, it is a via chip, and it should be plenty fast to play a movie. You keep mentioning projects that can play diff formats. But it is already done. Gstreamer does just about everything you are saying. And imho it would be a waste of time to work with anything else.
Well.. Do you own it? I don't want to buy it and be disapointed 
I know for a fact that playing divx is processor intensive (at least the old codecs -- the newer ones are way more optimized and aren't so cpu intensive). Anyone got their two cents on this mobo? It is interesting to note it has a tv output and audio outputs however, we want to achieve quality but for testing purposes that is cool.
I know for a fact that playing divx is processor intensive (at least the old codecs -- the newer ones are way more optimized and aren't so cpu intensive). Anyone got their two cents on this mobo? It is interesting to note it has a tv output and audio outputs however, we want to achieve quality but for testing purposes that is cool.I dont own it but I have been looking at it for quite sometime now (even before it was compatible with linuxbios). Definately a m/b to look into.
As for networking.....I think we would want that to be include in the kernel for this machine. It could very useful and provide features that would supercede competitors products. For instance you could have a streaming video/audio server. ie. videolan, icecast. Also you could have it able to retrieve cddb information if a person wanted to play a cd. Just a thought. monkey-media is an interface for gstreamer (makes it really easy to make audio/video players) and it has cddb and musicbrainz support
As for networking.....I think we would want that to be include in the kernel for this machine. It could very useful and provide features that would supercede competitors products. For instance you could have a streaming video/audio server. ie. videolan, icecast. Also you could have it able to retrieve cddb information if a person wanted to play a cd. Just a thought. monkey-media is an interface for gstreamer (makes it really easy to make audio/video players) and it has cddb and musicbrainz support
Some interesting ideas regarding network indeed yes.. At first i wasn't considering of including networking at all just to rid of all the unecessities however, those are interesting ideas (i like the cddb one Also if you have read about the VDR project they included LCD Displays we should give that a shot too. Although I am sure we could just make everything on screen and controlled by a custom remote controller.
Also if you have read about the VDR project they included LCD Displays we should give that a shot too. Although I am sure we could just make everything on screen and controlled by a custom remote controller.This is sort of a coincidence, but my brother bought a replayTV(like tivo) today. And their units are networkable. So if one unit has a show recorded on it all the others have access to it and can download it. A nice feature if you want multiple units. Also it can update software and update the TV guide.
for my box im going to go for professional sound card all the way. sound blaster is alright, but in the high end arena, its just mid-fi at best. there are a couple that stereophile reviewed quite favorably.
plus, anytime you are dabbling in the analog realm INSIDE a computer case, the output might be crap... my box would ONLY have optical/coax digital out... it would NEED a pre-amp out. but i would much rather output a digital signal and have a REAL piece of audio gear decode it than rely on an audio card inside a computer to do it...
ive also seen quite a bit of FULL DIY mp3 decoders. you could build the board, interface with a HD, and you dont need the whole computer... less heat and less electronics. if you could use a digital out of somesort, you could just get a good layout, good circuit board, and use high quality components... you would then need to somehow download to the harddrive somehow... but that IMO would be the ideal.
plus, anytime you are dabbling in the analog realm INSIDE a computer case, the output might be crap... my box would ONLY have optical/coax digital out... it would NEED a pre-amp out. but i would much rather output a digital signal and have a REAL piece of audio gear decode it than rely on an audio card inside a computer to do it...
ive also seen quite a bit of FULL DIY mp3 decoders. you could build the board, interface with a HD, and you dont need the whole computer... less heat and less electronics. if you could use a digital out of somesort, you could just get a good layout, good circuit board, and use high quality components... you would then need to somehow download to the harddrive somehow... but that IMO would be the ideal.
gigatron said:Regarding audio well. i am wondering... I am thinking how would we use some hifi amp, preamp, spekearers, etc.. to make the experience like a real hifi theatre experience not just computer quality based sound somehow hooked up to speakers. I am not quite sure how sound cards work compared to hifi stuff. This is the best sound card to date http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy2/ however... ya... would i be able to hook this up to a preamp, then go to an amp then speakers and not make everything crisp fried and explode? Whats the point of getting such an expensive sound card? I dunno. Whats your take on this? I'm not getting too many replies to my post
Hey that is very interesting? DIY MP3 standalone players? Got links? That is cool but still we want to build a video and audio player. Regarding your choice of sound cards, you said you would output digital, then build a digital to analog converter or something? Give me some more info sounds interesting. I plan to use my dad's Class-A Hi-Fi stuff; pre-amp, amp and speakers. hehehehe.... he wont mind I want quality of course!
I want quality of course!
thats all good and dandy, but honestly, that is barely mid-fi. hook that system up to a standalone stereo, and you will notice a difference. there are hifi sound cards out there that will run circles around any soundblaster for around $150 with all the digital in/outs and analog in/outs you could possibly want...
most of the cost of soundblaster is in the bundled software and the extra useless features like DSP, etc...
most of the cost of soundblaster is in the bundled software and the extra useless features like DSP, etc...
Smeven said:
there are tons of sites on the net. do a search for DIY and MP3. im still in my current project (a 6-channel class A theatre. commercially would have been over $22K for amps alone, hehe). but after that i plan on building an audiophile grade mp3 player. i MIGHT include divx or some other formats, but quite frankly, its too much extra stuff, i wouldnt know how to go about progressive scan output, and there are great dvd players out there anyway...
to answer the question, if you use digital out, you would jsut run it into a pre-amp, which would convert it into a usable signal...
but for BEST quality, you wouldnt really want a D/A converter in with the components... using a separate pre-amp would be best...
to answer the question, if you use digital out, you would jsut run it into a pre-amp, which would convert it into a usable signal...
but for BEST quality, you wouldnt really want a D/A converter in with the components... using a separate pre-amp would be best...
gigatron said:Hey that is very interesting? DIY MP3 standalone players? Got links? That is cool but still we want to build a video and audio player. Regarding your choice of sound cards, you said you would output digital, then build a digital to analog converter or something? Give me some more info sounds interesting. I plan to use my dad's Class-A Hi-Fi stuff; pre-amp, amp and speakers. hehehehe.... he wont mind
Ok I am not too experienced in the hi-fi sphera My father is I have yet to ask him about this (he just found out i am a member on the diyaudio forums lol). We have a pre-amp (currently cd player and dvd hooked up to it) and a cheap class-a amp. Custom built kef speakers (similar to 104/2 ref series but better). He is building an aleph4 though. He will also build a pre-amp based on one of the designs by Mr. Nelson. Could you be a bit more gentle for my young mind and enlighten me how we would go about doing this as in achieving highest quality from a sound card and using in this config
My intent is to have a player that is beyond just a DVD Player, it has to be capable to play DivX and XVid they are not standard and no standalone commercial player will come out for a long time if ever. BUT if we are to build this why not make it of high quality
My father is I have yet to ask him about this (he just found out i am a member on the diyaudio forums lol). We have a pre-amp (currently cd player and dvd hooked up to it) and a cheap class-a amp. Custom built kef speakers (similar to 104/2 ref series but better). He is building an aleph4 though. He will also build a pre-amp based on one of the designs by Mr. Nelson. Could you be a bit more gentle for my young mind and enlighten me how we would go about doing this as in achieving highest quality from a sound card and using in this config My intent is to have a player that is beyond just a DVD Player, it has to be capable to play DivX and XVid they are not standard and no standalone commercial player will come out for a long time if ever. BUT if we are to build this why not make it of high quality
http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_via_eden/index.shtml
There's a read on that minitx mobo. It seems a very lo-fi solution then. It is capable of playing divx at the lowest quality settings. DVD-wise its horrid. According to the benchmarks its weaker then a P2-400. I had a P3-600 with a gf2gts and it was jittery playback of divx so I can only guess how this is...ah well its still an interesting piece of hardware to know about, but I guess.. we should stay away from this FOR NOW. The fastest component is as fast as the slowest, we'll just run into bottlenecks of sorts I don't think this is a good choice for the time being even getting a descent video card with good video decoding performance. So.. I guess we should hunt down full size mobos for now.
There's a read on that minitx mobo. It seems a very lo-fi solution then. It is capable of playing divx at the lowest quality settings. DVD-wise its horrid. According to the benchmarks its weaker then a P2-400. I had a P3-600 with a gf2gts and it was jittery playback of divx so I can only guess how this is...ah well its still an interesting piece of hardware to know about, but I guess.. we should stay away from this FOR NOW. The fastest component is as fast as the slowest, we'll just run into bottlenecks of sorts I don't think this is a good choice for the time being even getting a descent video card with good video decoding performance. So.. I guess we should hunt down full size mobos for now.
have you seen dashpc?
Have you seen the dashpc project? It's very similar to what you're trying to do; however, it's designed for a car. As such, it could easily be adapted to a home stereo(ish) application. We have quite a following and the project is growing exponentially. Check it out and feel free to contribute if you feel so inclined:
http://www.dashpc.com/
Cheers,
CB
Have you seen the dashpc project? It's very similar to what you're trying to do; however, it's designed for a car. As such, it could easily be adapted to a home stereo(ish) application. We have quite a following and the project is growing exponentially. Check it out and feel free to contribute if you feel so inclined:
http://www.dashpc.com/
Cheers,
CB
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