[mythtv-users] MythTV vs. Windows Media Center

[Nick Rout]

On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 11:33 AM, Reynolds, Brian <Brian.Reynolds at fiserv.com
> wrote:

>
>
> Keep in mind that Myth appears to add higher costs for the front-end
> hardware.  I can get Media Center Extenders for about $100 each.  Can I
> build a Myth front-end for $100 that will play HD content?
>

I was about to say that i thought there was a thread about refurb acer revo
systems for $99 on here, but on reflection it might have been $199.

If you want low power and cute frontends the current entry level seems to be
nvidia ion chipsets - mainly because the ion is cheap and will do vdpau
which is hardware decoding of mpeg-2 and h.264 video. the revo I refer to
above is an ion machine. Don't forget that these are full computers, so can
be put to other uses - eg if you want to do regular computing on it.

Now we will probably get into a debate about whether the ion is good enough,
or whether you really want a better graphics card (eg an nvidia 430 or 220).
Many people are very happy with their ion machines.

There are plenty of ways to skin the frontend cat, yes you can use a number
of the networked media players - they won't do a full frontend that has all
the frontend capabilities, but they will allow you to play recordings and
watch videos. Scheduling recordings etc can be done via mythweb, or a
computer running a full frontend. This type of networked box can, i believe,
be had for around $100 in the US. I am unsure whether any of them double as
MCE Extenders. (What i say above is a generalisation - before investing in
one for mythtv do check back here to see about the pros and cons of various
models).
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