[mythtv-users] Laptop as a Front-End (HD)

[bhaskins at chartermi.net]

---- John Welch <jrw3319 at gmail.com> wrote: 
> I'm in the market for a new general purpose / multimedia laptop.  I'm
> looking for a full sized laptop; probably targeting a 15" screen.  My
> budget is between $400-$650.  While it definitely won't be its primary
> purpose, I thought that while I was looking around I would keep in
> mind occasional use as a MythTV front-end.  Most of my recordings now
> are HD programs coming from an HDHR, a pcHDTV HD-3000, and an HD-PVR,
> with the majority coming from the HDHR.
> 
> I'm wondering if anyone has any experience and/or suggestions with
> using a laptop as a front-end, specifically with regards to HD
> playback.  I'm thinking that within my price range I might be hard
> pressed to find something that will be able to play the HD-PVR
> recordings, but I'm hoping to at least be able to play the HDHR (and
> HD-3000) stuff.
> 
> Just looking around so far at NewEgg and Best Buy, there are a
> plethora of choices in my price range.  Most of them have an Intel GMA
> 4500M GPU, but there are a few with ATI Radeon graphics and a couple
> with NVidia graphics.  Is my best (or only) chance at getting smooth
> HD playback to go with something that has NVidia graphics that can do
> VDPAU, or would some of the better mobile processors be able to handle
> it even with Intel/ATI graphics?  The most common processors on the
> laptops I've looked at seem to be the Intel Pentium T4300/T4400.
> 
> Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> John
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I use a bunch of older Thinkpads in my setup.
One is a wireless control center/frontend another is a nas with all solid state storage ( very!! neat BTW ), and yet another does firewire capture off of a DCH3400 when the other PVRs are busy.
I can get what I think is good quality playback on the laptop FE but only by transfering files up to a buffer area
and then playing them with VLC.
One of the problems that you will have to resolve is that your storage options are somewhat limited as
compared to desktops.
Laptop hard drives are much slower and I'm very much in the camp of those that say that you must have at least two drives.
I have a PCMCIA sd drive in place but I'm not to the point of running the os or myth from it yet.
YMMV, I keep very little of what I capture.