January 24, 2004
Last week I finally completed building my
STeVo and overall the system is working quite well. However, I still need to do some minor tweaks. Yet I wanted to express a few of my initial observations and install notes for those of you interested in building one these boxes yourself...
more here
December 30, 2003
I finally took the plunge and ordered the following hardware for what my wife has officially called
STeVo. Once I receive all the equipment, I'll move onto the next step of putting it all together and hope it works (fingers crossed)!
STeVo System Design
- CPU: AMD ATHLON XP 2600+ 512K-333FSB
- Motherboard: Asus ATX MBD A7N8X/DELUX
- w/NForce? 2 chipset and on board:
- DD/DTS audio
- Ethernet
- Firewire/1394
- USB 2.0
- Ultra ATA 133 and Serial ATA for future upgrades
- RAID
- Techdepot
- RAM: SimpleTech? SVM-DDR2700?/256 256MB PC2700? Non-ECC DDR 184pin DIMM
- Hard Drive: Maxtor L01P120? 7200 RPM 120 GB Hard Drive
- Power Supply: At lesat a 300 Watt power supply (already have)
- Video: NVIDIA GEFORCE4? TI4200? AGP 8X-128MB DDR TV DVD
- TV Tuner Card: Hauppauge WINTV-PVR 250 (PCI) Remote
- 125 channel Stereo TV-Tuner
Links
Articles
Guides
Software
- SageTV -- Commercial PVR Software (Windows 98, 2000, XP)
- SageTV? can also be purchased as a bundle with the Hauppauge WinTV? PVR cards (Nice!)
- MythTV -- Open-source homebrew PVR project
- Freevo -- Freevo is an open-source digital video jukebox (PVR, DVR) based on Linux in addition to a number of open-source audio/video tools
- SnapStream -- Commercial PVR Software (Winodws XP)
- KnoppMyth -- Bootable Install CD for MythTV? based on Knoppix
- ETV personal video recorder -- Similar to MythTV? with a stronger focus on European TV (ealy Alpha)
Hardware
Notes on Building your own Personal Video Recorder [PVR]
I've decided to build my own PVR (personal video recorder) or DVR (digital video recorder), which is similar to commercial appliances such as
TiVo and
ReplayTV. I'll use this space to collect information and document my progress.
Motherboard Specs: Asus A7N8X?-X Specifications:
The A7N8X
?-X is a stripped down version of the A7N8X
? Deluxe. It has NO dual channel support, no firewire support, no SATA controllers, no second ethernet jack, and no SoundStorm
? Dolby Digital Audio.
Processor
- AMD Athlon XP Processors
- AMD Athlon Processors
- AMD Duron Processors
- 200/266/333/400 MHz? System Data Bus
Chipset
- nVIDIA nForce2 400
- nVIDIA nForce2 MCP
Memory
- 3 DDR DIMM; Up to 3GB
- DDR 200/266/333/400 memory support
- ECC DDR Ram Memory Support
Audio
- Realtek ALC650? 6CH w/ built in HP amplifier
Onboard LAN
- MCP integrated nVIDIA MAC + Realtek 8201BL PHY
Expand Slots
Onboard I/O
- 1 Parallel port
- 1 RJ-45 connector
- 1 Audio I/O
- 1 PS/2 mouse, 1 PS/2 keyboard connector
- 4 rear USB 2.0
Onboard IDE
- 2 UltraDMA? 133/100/66/33
System BIOS
Form Factor
- ATX Form Factor
- 12" X 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.5cm)
Package Contents
- 1 X Motherboard
- 1 X Manual
- 1 X UltraDMA? 133 IDE and 1 X FDD cable
- 1 X Drivers CD
- 1 X I/O Shielding
- 3 X 2-pin jumper
StevenHatch --
December 31, 2008, at 01:53 PM