[mythtv-users] mythtv as a consumer embedded application

[Laurie Harper]

Hey all, I'm looking at making a MythTV device that sits and looks 
right in an AV rack and behaves like a dedicated consumer device. I 
figure I need the right hardware and dedicated Linux and MythTV 
distributions that provide a combination of consistent branding and 
super-fast power-on. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of 
thing?

I'm looking for pointers to barebones embedded linux devices like the 
idvd-6086 from GCT-AllWell (http://www.allwell.com.tw/idvd-6086.htm), 
though preferably based on regular x86 PC hardware since that gives me 
the best shot at having all the hardware support MythTV needs to run at 
its best). Is that something I need to worry about, or is MythTV 
portable to other hardware architectures?

Does anyone have suggestions for appropriate platforms? My requirements 
include:

   * an enclosure that looks like an AV component (not just a funky 
looking PC case)

   * clean front panel with little more than the basic requirements:
       - IR receiver, power button, CD/CD-R/DVD/DVD-R drive, maybe USB, 
little else

   * TV in, TV out over S-Video/composite/component out, 5.1 surround 
and S/PDIF sound out

   * space for at least one 3.5" HDD internally in addition to the CD 
drive

   * minimal noise output!

   * adequate CPU power for live TV with one tuner on a combined 
front/backend box; I'm willing to trade off CPU vs. hardware capture 
encoding though

   * probably a bunch of other things I'm not thinking of right now :-)

I'm also looking for pointers to resources to help creating that 
'invisible embedded linux' experience :-) If I got something like a 
Pundit (http://usa.asus.com/products/desktop/pundit/overview.htm), 
installed Mandrake or some other distribution and added MythTV... I'd 
end up with an AV component that took two minutes to switch on and sent 
all sorts of Linux boot-up stuff to the screen. What I want is a box 
where I hit 'On' and get a nice logo on the screen for 30 - 40 seconds 
and is then ready to go!

I figure that requires two or three things:

  * a heavily stripped down linux dist (minimal stuff to do during 
startup)

  * some customisation (like making the boot sequence display just a 
logo w/out detail of what's happening)

  * maybe using a flash ROM or similar boot solution

Anyone worked on anything like this? Pointers? Suggestions? Any help 
would be very much appreciated! :-)

L.