[mythtv-users] Hello after long absence - looking to build very small Myth setup.

[HP-mini]

On Sat, 2013-06-15 at 14:55 -0400, Bert Haskins wrote:
> On 06/15/2013 01:19 PM, Rob Davis wrote:
> > On 6/7/2013 3:26 PM, Mark Knecht wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>     I've resubscribed to mythtv-users after a long (3 year?) absence. I
> >> ran MythTV for years, then ended up on DirecTV with no real interest
> >> in trying to make Myth do what their $5/month DVR did. However we sold
> >> the house and I'm currently using a Mohu Leaf for OTA HDTV so I
> >> thought I might check out what my options are for a low cost modest
> >> front-end/back-end combo machine.
> >>
> >>     Please note at the outset: We're living in an apartment for the
> >> next 6-8 months while we look for a house to buy in a more southern
> >> portion of California. Space is at a premium here so I'm curious about
> >> building a _very_ small machine that can record no more than 2
> >> programs at a time and doesn't need to play back more than 1 at a
> >> time. I'd like to find something _very_ small, like Roku sized if
> >> possible, but reading through the MythTV site I seem to see a lot fo
> >> recommendations there for using x86 & NVidia graphics which isn't what
> >> I'm finding in this sized machine at Newegg or Amazon.
> >>
> >
> > I used an old HP laptop as a frontend with a busted screen.  It had an 
> > NVidia 8400 onboard which is good enough for VDPAU.  The form factor 
> > is quiet and flat.  It's not too hard to remove a laptop screen and 
> > bracket, but the wifi antenna and possibly webcam is also wired into 
> > the screen back.  They can normally be disconnected from the main part 
> > of the PC fairly easily.
> >
> > Finding a used/broken laptop on eBay is not easy as people who use 
> > eBay tend to know they can fix it for about $50.
> Another thing that should be mentioned:
> Much of the power consumed  by a laptop is for the backlight so when 
> this is disconnected,
> the power, heat, and fan noise will all be less.
> I have used Thinkpads for both backends and frontends with very good 
> results.
> 
> Your biggest problem might be just getting around the overly paranoid 
> protection schemes that
> try to keep you from accessing your own network.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
The laptop combination of mobile chipsets & compact construction is
almost unbeatable when bearing in mind that with computers, small &
quiet are normally followed by expensive..

An improved ION mini-ITX mobo.
http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-d2550-wifi-supreme-d2550itxs-b-u.html
And seems to be a fanless case here:
http://www.ecosmartpc.com/s197h80d2500gt610.html

The jury may still be out on whether the 610 (re-badged 520) has the
shader performance for vector adaptive de-interlacering on 60Hz fields &
hq scaling for SD material.

There are some much more expensive mini-ITX sized boxes with intel
iCPU/GPU & 630 nVidia GPU.