[mythtv-users] Hardware Advice: Single board Mini Box for HD?

[Ken Mandelberg]

I've been using mythtv on a couple of laptops with reasonable success, 
but far from optimal for HD. One is a 2ghz pent-M with i915, the other a 
2ghz pent-4 with radeon 7500. The first barely holds it own at HD, the 
second is a little short.

I think its time now to buy hardware thats optimal and avoid the cpu and 
graphics limitations in the laptops.

I'm looking to build an inexpensive  very compact system based on a 
single board computer. From my laptop experience, I think the trickiest 
part is getting a graphics chip without hardware or driver limitations 
in supporting xv with xvmc at hd resoluton.

Beyond that I need the usual (dvi, vga, sata, firewire, usb, gig-e). I'm 
using an HDhomerun for unencrypted QAM, and firewire to an STB for some 
encrypted channels, so I don't need built in capture.

Any suggestions? I don't really know whats around in homebrew single 
boards with the right graphics. I don't need to render 3d graphics, it 
just needs to handle HD mpeg2's very well.

Actually, can I do any better building my own than an Intel Mac Mini? 
The i915 in the laptop is disappointing, and I don't know how much more 
the i950 buys you compared with a i915. It seems like the Linux driver 
is still a work in progress and doesn't support xvmc as yet.

Sorry if this has been covered in the wiki. I didn't see anything really 
appropriate.