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

Tim Tait t.tait at comcast.net
Sun Jul 11 23:02:53 EDT 2004


Jason Keirstead wrote:

>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.
>
Re: Xbox, I just posted an hour ago that it seems like there are some 
issues with putting linux on the newer (2004-04 and later?) xbox's, so 
you may want to wait and see if gets straightened out. Otherwise the 
xbox would seem like an excellent choice (and fitting revenge on M$, who 
shouldn't be dumping hardware at below cost anyhow, isn't that what 
Standard Oil in trouble back in the 20's?)

Tim




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