[mythtv-users] Looking for Ultimate Frontend-only...

[drbob]

Brad wrote:
> I've been looking for the perfect frontend (only) machine for MythTV, 
> and am amazed that I can't find anything that fits my criteria.

Have you thought about a modded xbox? $120 for the console (£99 in the 
UK) You'll be able to boot linux on it and it fits most of your criteria 
(you get spdif out with the hi-def av pack)

Add $30 (or £30) for a modchip if you want to play games on it as well 
as run linux otherwise you can flash the internal bios with a GPL 
replacement.

Take a look at xbox linux:

http://www.xbox-linux.org/

Though you may need to look though the previous versions of many pages 
for useful information as since they switched to a wiki format the site 
has been repeatedly vandalized.

and mythtv-xbox:

http://bit.blkbk.com/bittorrent/

I haven't any experience of this yet (though I am seriously considering 
an xbox as my mythtv frontend)

Another alternative the the xbox media centre project which runs 
natively on the xbox os (you need a modchip) and has a "work in 
progress" mythtv interface written in python (this isn't a full 
frontend, they're just working towards scheduling and playback of 
recordings plus livetv as the xbmc software already has most of the 
other features normally present in a mythtv frontend):

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/

Thread on their forums about the python mythtv interface:

http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?s=8e3561c2680b08d0e37b2ee6ba9aa219;act=ST;f=21;t=2676

Sourceforge page:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmcmythtv/

Hope this helps