[mythtv-users] Advice on cheap boxes for front-ends only

[Jason Keirstead]

I am looking at setting up a home-lan myth setup, where al l my equipment for 
recieving signals ( sat dish boxes, cable boxes, encoder boxes ) will be in a 
closet in the basement, and I will have a small, cheap, low power front end 
box at every TV. This way I can capitalize on myth's backend / frontend 
functionality.

I was wondering what people have for advice for a low cost front end only box. 
So far my prime candidate has been a suitably modded XBox, which seems to be 
cheaper than most other solutions I have been pursuing ( including building 
my own microATX based box ).

Other solutions I have been thinking of are a low end laptops, or maybe single 
board computers. However, I am kind of at a loss as to what my minimal 
hardware requirements would be for a laptop to run as a front end.

Any suggestions at all would be appriciated.