[mythtv-users] Energy Efficient Front End

[Steve Peters - Priority Electronics]

>
>I have a car-puter that has a myth be/fe on it.  It's not used for
>recording at all - no tuners.
>
>It's an energy sucking hog.  This is a problem since it kills the
>batteries in short order.
>
>Is anyone using an energy efficient car-puter with myth?  Mostly for
>movies; HD would be nice but not necessary.  The slowest, least energy
>hungry CPU out there.  An ARM box would be nice.
>
>--Yan


Yan, why not just get a laptop and install it in the car. You can find cheam
Pentium M laptops for under $250. I've got one that I'm using as a myth
frontend and it plays HD just fine on it. 1.5ghz IBM R51 with Radeon 7500.
Doesn't use much power. I haven't tested this one, but I think it's around
15 watts with the screen off.

As a bonus, most laptops are pretty much silent. This one is, as the fan
hardly spins and I put a $15 Hitachi 4GB microdrive in there in place of the
hard drive.

-Steve