[mythtv-users] Cheap frontend

Tom Harris thom.j.harris at gmail.com
Tue May 14 17:46:03 UTC 2013


On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 2:27 PM, Joseph Fry <joe at thefrys.com> wrote:

> Cheap is easy... cheap and high quality a bit harder.... cheap, high
> quality, small, and efficient is almost impossible.
>
> I would just pick up a used small form factor computer that has a 64bit
> Intel or AMD CPU and a PCI Express slot and get an NVidia card... if your
> patient you could have a frontend with Advanced 2x deinterlacing for under
> $100.
>
> But it may not be silent or super efficient.
>
>
> On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 4:56 PM, Josu Lazkano <josu.lazkano at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hello all.
>>
>> I had an Nvidia ION1 board but it does not work now, I want to change it.
>>
>> I want to use as a frontend to watch TV, videos and play music. I need
>> to watch HD films, so I think that it will be good to have a hardware
>> decoding.
>>
>> Which hardware do you recommend? I need a cheap one.
>>
>> Thanks and best regards.
>>
>

I am also an Ion user, and I've been happy with it.   There are still Atom
/ Ion nettop PCs available, why not just get another one of those?   VDPAU
works great for these small, quiet, low-power devices.

The two other options I have looked at, which as far as I know still don't
measure up to the Atom/Ion/VDPAU are:

- Intel NUC:  Nice small form factor, with good CPU choices.    This will
be a good option when VAAPI matches or exceeds VDPAU.  Last I knew VAAPI in
MythTV wasn't as good as VDPAU (someone please correct me if that's not
accurate any more).

- Google TV + MythTV App:  Lots of GoogleTV devices (be careful which you
buy to make sure it supports your broadcast HD encoding format).  They are
small/quiet/low-power and very cheap.    The MythTV app is a very nice
start..  connects easily with my backend and does a pretty good job playing
HD material.  A few gripes:  HD content appears (to me) to be displaying at
a lower frame rate - which may be a limitation of my device's capabilities.
  Responsiveness for video start/skip is not to Myth frontend levels (what
is?).   Usability of GoogleTV is crap..  big step down from simple/quick
MythTV recording navigation (of course, it does MANY other things, which
may justify the hodgepodge of remote+mouse+keyboard controls.  But, just as
a DVR++ I find usability to be poor).
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