[mythtv-users] most energy efficient myth frontend?
Yan Seiner
yan at seiner.com
Sat Sep 5 19:33:23 UTC 2009
Raymond Wagner wrote:
> Yan Seiner wrote:
>> Energy consumption is a huge concern. I'm looking for something that
>> can play back HD on composite output and use < 2A @ 12VDC. And of
>> course cost is a big concern as well.
> How important is that limit? Are you trying to run this off your
> 12VDC lighting system? That seems rather restrictive considering your
> TV is probably a CRT, and almost certainly running off AC. Getting
> under 25W for the system is rather difficult, and will likely mean you
> end up buying a laptop to do this.
It's pretty important but somewhat arbitrary. The TV is a 9.4" LCD that
draws 700ma @ 12VDC (at least that's what the specs tell me - seems a
bit low but as it's an LCD only it is possible.)
I tend to go places where there are no hookups. My last RV had dual
T135 batteries, and the entertainment system was the single largest
power user. Given the 9 A @ 12VDC consumption, I had about 7 hours
before the batteries died. And once the batteries died, no heat, no
fridge. So the energy budget is critical. This one has smaller
batteries but a generator. I don't like the noise the genset makes, so
I'm trying to minimize the consumption. I figure with new stuff, I can
get to about half of my previous budget; I'd like to get to a third.
>
> If you can lighten your restrictions to say 50W AC, a lot more will
> open up. You can get an ION system and do hardware decoding for your
> HD content, however none of them come with svideo outputs, and you
> will have to buy a VGA->svideo converter. Similarly any VDPAU capable
> motherboard is going to have the same limitation. You can get an
> older 7-series motherboard, or a discrete video card that has svideo
> output.
> The ION systems are probably going to run around 30W. A relatively
> basic system with a standard desktop processor is going to idle around
> 50W. If you undervolt and underclock, you can drop that considerably.
I've been looking at the fit-pc2, which is perfect in almost all
respects - except for the lack of composite output. Crap. I'm not sure
if an DVI-Composite adapter exists or how much it costs.
>
> Now about the hard drive... using an SSD is an outright mistake. You
> just can't buy them large enough to be worthwhile, and power
> consumption during reading is no better than that of a laptop drive.
> A laptop drive will pull ~2W, and can be had in respectable sizes. If
> you're worried about ruggedness while on the road, go to a fabric
> store and buy some elastic to suspend the drive. Don't use rubber as
> that will dry up and crack in a warm computer case. My suggestion is
> to just buy one of the low power WD Greens, and a hotswap bay. While
> you're on the move, remove the drive and secure it somewhere padded.
> If you want to continue using a computer for mapping/GPS, have a
> separate suspended laptop drive as the system disk.
OK, good point on that. My current system has an 80GB 2.5 drive that's
been around quite a bit, and hasn't failed yet. But the 40 and 60 GB
drives it replaced died an early death, so I expect that it's a bit of
luck to find a drive that works.
--
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