[MPlayer-users] Re: mplayer on via C3 chips / epia mini-itx boards

[Jason Lunz]

pinguellis at yahoo.co.uk said:
> You should be OK with the newer EIPA-M series as you can get a 933MHz
> cpu A few people are already building PVRs with this. Note you wlll
> need the VIA binary video driver to get the best performance.

Have you used one of these? I'm hoping to hear from someone with
firsthand experience.

I'd like to avoid the M series if possible, because they seem to require
more cooling (so more noise), and because the video chipset is closed.
It seems you have to use via's closed driver to use X or do TV out.

I'd prefer to use the Epia 800, because it uses the Trident
Cyberblade/i1 chip. Xfree86 already supports that, and mplayer already
has a vidix driver for it (see
http://www.blackfiveservices.co.uk/EPIAVidix.shtml).

I know people are building PVRs with these things, but I haven't been
able to find any detailed descriptions of how well it works. I'd like to
know the machine has good video output before I spend a few hundred
dollars on it.

Jason