[mythtv-users] Streaming recordings

[Brian Wood]

On Friday, August 20, 2010 08:37:56 am Dan Rose wrote:
> Keywords: upnp
> Keywords: affordable front-end
> 
> Patriot Media Player:
> 
> I have one of these as a poor-man's mythtv frontend and I am 
truly
> impressed.   They are on-sale new for $55 after rebate, as 
discussed on
> Dealnews and points to newegg.com.    ( I paid $65 for mine)
> 
> I run my Patriot wireless with an 802.11/n usb adapter ($8 that I 
also
> picked up from dealnews), but required the right router settings.  
I also
> move my patriot occasionally, and ethernet always works with no 
special
> setup.
> 
> My myth backend is ATSC over-the-air only,  but the patriot player 
has
> capabilities well beyond that.
> 
> More...
> 
> UPNP streams to Patriot Box Office HD Media Player, better and 
cheaper than
> PS3
> 
> http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1136/1/

There are TONS of "Media Players" out there right now, many of 
them well under $100. Many are "Networked Media Tanks", such as 
the Popcorn Hour and the Myka.

The features run the gamut. In particular you want to check if they 
can handle .MKV files, or DTS audio, and what network protocols 
they support. Some can even handle Netflix "Watch Instantly", and 
that feature doesn't seem to increase the cost by much.

They pretty much all use hardware decoding (Sigma Designs or 
similar), and are thus low power consumption units, but of course 
they come nowhere near what a real Myth frontend can do.

WiFi connections are usually iffy, especially with HD content.

The problem is figuring out which of the many choices is best for 
you, the lowest cost unit may not be the one you want.

All of them are better and cheaper at playing video than a PS3, 
which draws a lot of power. An XBOX-360 can also work as a UPnP 
player, but also draws significant power.