[mythtv-users] Plans for front & back end Myth boxes

[Jessica Perry Hekman]

On Sun, Aug 08, 2010 at 04:42:33PM +1200, Tortise wrote:

> Providing a URL to the manual of the TV is often a good way to
> accelerate the advice given to you here.

My TV's manual is available here:

 http://www.retrevo.com/support/Philips-27PT543S-TVs-manual/id/278dj493/t/2/

Right now, I would really like to just buy an Acer Revo for my front 
end, as that seems to be what people here recommend. However, it does 
not have s-video out.

The TV also supports RCA and composite, and I'm fine with using either 
of those. (Would either of them work with the Acer, with some sort of 
converter?)

I was intending to buy a DVI to s-video adapter from Apple ($19):

  http://store.apple.com/us/product/M9267G/A

but it sounds like the wisdom from this list is that that won't work 
(and thank you for that warning!). This appears to be what people use 
for Mac Minis, but I'm guessing it is in some way Mac-only.

Is my best bet to buy an Acer and swap in a different graphics card? Or 
buy a different system altogether? If a different system, I would very 
much appreciate recommendations for an inexpensive front-end that will 
output to my TV.

Although I previously said that I wanted the ability to go to HD later, 
that isn't all that important. If it makes anything easier to give that 
possibility up, I'm happy to. I'm a student living entirely on loans, 
and looking at probably at least another five years of low income, so I 
don't really expect to buy a good TV any time soon. (I have some hope 
that my boyfriend might, and then I'd get to use it, but obviously best 
not to bank too much on that :)

As always, thanks to everyone for all the information! This list is like 
unto a fire hose. It's great.

Jessica