[mythtv-users] Backend/Frontend hardware (new system)

[Nick Rout]

On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Michael Watson
<michael at thewatsonfamily.id.au> wrote:
>
> Power to my house is provided by Hyrdo Electric.

Yes and the less of it you use, the more of it is for everyone else
and the less coal they have to burn in some other part of the country!

> What of the energy, resources used (and the energy consumed to mine the
> resources) to produce a new machine, that is not required if an old (already
> produced) machine can be reused, granted consuming more power than a new,
> low power machine.

I don't dispute that, in fact I said that I don't think there is even
a "right" answer.

>But what are the actual usage figures of a "low power"
> machine, and a P4 Desktop machine, playing the same content.
>
>
> I am watching with great interest the development of the Myth Android
> Frontend, this seems it would be a great addition to the small, low power,
> cheap Google TV devices now entering the market.
>

The android frontends are all (I believe) based on the services api,
which transcodes to h264 - that takes quite a grunty processor. My
lowly sempron certainly cannot do it - or maybe it's the lowly 1G ram.
Anyway if you are going to heavily use the services api, don't expect
a lowly back end to cope IMHO.