[mythtv-users] what is the cat's ass of integrated "set top box" like hardware now?

[Douglas Wagner]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 11:10 PM, Zuriel <elpinkus at yahoo.com> wrote:

> The Zotac Atom/Ion boxes deserve a mention in this thread. They're fairly
> slim and quiet. Mine works well.
>
> The plain vanilla Atom ones won't have the grunt for HD video and driver
> support isn't there yet for the new AMD based ones, though the E-350 has
> enough power for mpeg2 and mpeg4 1080i software decoding so long as you
> don't pick an 'increased CPU requirements' deinterlacer.
>
>
> http://www.zotac.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=100083&lang=au
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
So I probably shouldn't even be posting to this thread without a much better
exploration of the options, but have you considered something like a laptop
for the FE?  There's some pretty significant power in today's laptops and
the dell on my desk is only about 2" thick which I think could probably slip
in behind the TV without too much problem.  You've got to worry a bit about
heat build up as some laptops are pretty significant heat producers but I'd
think from a hideable HTPC solution a laptop would fit just about every
consideration you could come up with.

And the secondary benefit is you can always yank it from behind the TV when
you want to do an Upgrade and it has the built in screen and keyboard all
self contained...you can work locally and output the DVI or whatever
connection you want when you want to display.

Tertiary benefit is you can always use a local laptop harddrive for partial
storage and then take it with you (plus cables) if you want to take your
recordings on the road with you.  No, you wouldn't be able to use Myth to
replay them, but you could still use Xine or MPlayer or something.

Again, apologies if this comes across as an idiotic or unlearned solution to
this request...It's almost Midnight and I'm tired, I might be forgetting
something obvious. :)

--Doug
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20110720/1495aaaa/attachment.html