HTPC build with new ASUS AT5IONT-I

hi folks,

just been going back over this thread - some very interesting stuff so thanks to all contributors thus far. im a bit late to the game but am wondering if the PCIE issues mentioned have now been resolved, the latest bios update (0502 at time of writing) seem to have fixed it but im wondering if anyone has this particular experience...

anyone running the Dual TBS 6981 DVB-S2 tuner with the AT5IONT ? the pcie problems that have existed would make this mobo a non-starter for me.

KuleRucket Wrote:I have a question for anyone who currently owns the AT5IONT or even the AT3IONT and is using the Linux based xbmc or MythTV.

I have read conflicting information about whether the VDPAU supports multiple h.264 streams. MythTY wiki says no but it's a bit out of date. I have seen lot of reports on this thread and elsewhere that an Atom/ION pairing can easily cope with 1080p video. If VDPAU supports multiple streams, how much can the ION cope with for 2 streams?

I have seem a report on Amazon of someone using a Dual TBS 6981 DVB-S2 tuner with a Zotac ION board, recording one DVB-S HD channel whilst recording another. I am wondering whether the ASUS boards could do DVB-S2 + DVB-S or even 2xDVB-S2.

Could someone do some tests running 2x720i and try steps up to 2x1080p. In the end I think that if I can record a DVB-S2 channel while watching a DVB-S channel, that will be good enough to get a dual DVB-S2 PCIe tuner along with an AT3/AT5.

KuleRucket - did you get this to work in the end or opt for something else?

many thanks guys n gals...

LuKe

As far as I am aware, the majority of PCIe cards should now work. I suggest finding out what chipset your card has, and seeing if anyone has used a card with the same one.

WRT the dual 1080p streams, I would be hesitant to rely on an atom/ion combo for this. The single PCIe x1 link is enough for a single 1080p stream to be decoded on the GPU, but I'm not sure the CPU will be able to handle the other one. Unless someone comes along having done this, I could not guarantee this would work.

hi numb7rs,

many thanks for the quick response (finger been over the add-to-cart button...)

numb7rs Wrote:As far as I am aware, the majority of PCIe cards should now work. I suggest finding out what chipset your card has, and seeing if anyone has used a card with the same one.

WRT the dual 1080p streams, I would be hesitant to rely on an atom/ion combo for this. The single PCIe x1 link is enough for a single 1080p stream to be decoded on the GPU, but I'm not sure the CPU will be able to handle the other one. Unless someone comes along having done this, I could not guarantee this would work.

interesting point about the dual HD streams, not one i'd considered. forgive my ignorance but i thought the PCIe link was a x4 on this board? - perhaps i've got muddled... the card's connector is a short one (hahah, so un-technical!) i think it's a 1x length.

hmmm, more digging...

Luke

The PCIe port on this board is physically a x4, but electronically a x1. Your card is a x1 also. There's no issue here. (Even if the card was a x4, it would still work in a x1 port, as the PCIe architecture allows running with a lower number of links, but I digress)

I was actually talking about the link between the CPU and the ION chipset being only x1. I don't have any experience with running dual stream, and I don't know where the dual streams will be going, so I can't say if the board is up to this. For the playback of a single stream, the board will have no issue. If you're really concerned about having the dual stream functionality, I would suggest waiting until someone who has experience with this comes along.

numb7rs Wrote:I was actually talking about the link between the CPU and the ION chipset being only x1. I don't have any experience with running dual stream, and I don't know where the dual streams will be going, so I can't say if the board is up to this. For the playback of a single stream, the board will have no issue. If you're really concerned about having the dual stream functionality, I would suggest waiting until someone who has experience with this comes along.

wise words, thanks for clearing it up. shall see what comes up in my reasearch.

cheers,

Luke

Anyone experience problems with the eSATA disk not showing when resuming from standby?

numb7rs Wrote:WRT the dual 1080p streams, I would be hesitant to rely on an atom/ion combo for this. The single PCIe x1 link is enough for a single 1080p stream to be decoded on the GPU, but I'm not sure the CPU will be able to handle the other one. Unless someone comes along having done this, I could not guarantee this would work.

If you are recording one channel and watching the other, then you don't need the GPU to handle 2 streams. The video stream is decoded when you watch it, not when you record it.

dantheperson Wrote:The video stream is decoded when you watch it, not when you record it.

But surely there must be some sort of conversion when recording to disk? Unless that's handled by the capture card. That's why I said I don't know where the other stream will go.

I doubt the D525's capability to encode/decode 1080p streams on the fly, if that is what is needed.

numb7rs Wrote:But surely there must be some sort of conversion when recording to disk? Unless that's handled by the capture card. That's why I said I don't know where the other stream will go.

I doubt the D525's capability to encode/decode 1080p streams on the fly, if that is what is needed.

Analog TV was a different story with the CPU kept busy compressing the picture on the fly into a digital file ( or you bought an expensive TV card with a dedicated MPEG encoding chip).

With DVB-T/S/C the encoding is done by the broadcaster. A compressed MPEG transport stream is broadcast with many channels multiplexed together. To record you tune into the frequency and dump the broadcast stream onto the disk. The most your machine has to do is demultiplex the channels and that is very light work. For standard def myth can use less than 1% of one of the D525 CPUs -though for me it uses more like 15% as i have it scanning the stream for EIT data to update the programe guide- 23% recoding HD (1080i) and 45% recording two channels from the same multiplex - again these figures will be lower if you use a downloaded program guide rather than the over the air broadcast guide.

So for instance on my system, recording two 1080i channels, and watching another pre-recorded 1080i show, uses approx 57% of one cpu.

One point, i have no idea if with a dual tuner card ( mine is single ), recording two shows from different multiplexes would be too much for the PCI bus, as that would be obviously double the data, but i really doubt it, the compressed broadcast stream is small compared to the decoded picture going to a graphics card.

dantheperson Wrote:A compressed MPEG transport stream is broadcast with many channels multiplexed together. To record you tune into the frequency and dump the broadcast stream onto the disk.

That's really interesting, I honestly didn't know that. Thanks.

Quote:I have no idea if recording two shows from different multiplexes would be too much for the PCI bus.

The card LuKeNuKuM linked is shipped with a PCIe x1 connector. I don't think they would sell very well if this wasn't enough bandwidth

LuKeNuKuM - It seems my concerns over the dual streaming ability were unfounded. I see no reason why this wouldn't work.