[mythtv-users] Seems XBOX may not be such a good front end afterall

[Nick Rout]

On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 8:53 AM, Ben Edwards <list4me2 at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Been tying to get an XBOX working as a front end but I am coming to
> the conclushen that it may not be worthwile.  I decide to try the XBMC
> (Xbox Media Center) as a full Linux install was suposed to be a bit
> slugish and XBMC easier to get working.  It kind of works but I am
> getting lipsync problems and totaly loosing sound quite often.
>
> I could install Xdebian but not sure if it is worth it.  It occurs to
> be that second hand business PCs are very quiet and can be picked up
> very cheeply (1Ghz should do it) and would be easy to setup.
>
>  Ben

I use a compaq d530s as combined front and back end (sd, from
satellite). Celeron 2.4GHz, 512 RAM, 750G SATA2 drive.

pros:

quiet, sata on motherboard, black/silver, AGP half height slot, 2xPCI,
full height optical drive, front USB slots.

cons:

Can't really transcode or commflag without problems, we'd all like a
flash backend with multiple frontends, won't ever watch HD
(particularly here where it is h264.)

Overall very pleased with it.