Home theatre Linux box?

[jammer42777]

what hardware would work well for a home theatre setup.
(i'll assume AMD chip/ w/at least 512mb ram)
I'm mainly inquiring about video
and sound

Any information would be appreciated
--Joshua

[Calipso]

You may want to consider a Mini-ITX (http://www.mini-itx.com) setup. Will save room in your living room and possibly run quietly(if you get a fanless system) and even look pretty good. Just a suggestion. :)

[jammer42777]

that's really cool, but I was thinking more about what sound/video cards/ vid capture cards were known to work. I was hoping to find a Dobly 7.1 card that would give dolby 7.1 and DTS in linux

thanks!
--Joshua

[Calipso]

Oh, then Im sure someone else can help you with that.
As you can see by my signature I dont exactly have cutting-edge hardware :D

[jammer42777]

note quite cutting edge, although still usable, I wish that I had kept my old 350mhz k62
the only thing broken on it was a pin for the floppy connector.
And I Don't use floppies anymore! grrr

[demetrius]

Any of the newer nvidia cards would be your best bet for video. The 6600 series and newer cards has the PureVideo decoder chip. There is a passively cooled model available as well, since fan noise might be a consideration for a home theater system.

As for sound, you might want to check the ALSA homepage (http://www.alsa-project.org/) to find which cards have the supported features you want.

[je_fro]

mythtv on a hauppauge-pvr350 works for me!