[mythtv-users] Cheap frontend for christmas

[John Marshall]

On 12/19/2014 9:30 AM, Josu Lazkano wrote:
> Hello and thanks for the replies,
>
> ECS Liva really look interesting, but what about the HD contents,
> which driver works with this device?
>
> The RPI could not manage the HD content.
>
> Kind regards.

Many Kodi (formerly XMBC) users successfully use Raspberry Pis with HD 
content up to 1080p.  I borrowed a friend's for testing and could play a 
1080p Bluray rip.  It also handled 1080i HDHR Prime recordings once I 
purchased the mpeg2 license.  Reports on the forum are that the 
deinterlacing on the Pi is quite good, but I didn't give it enough 
scrutiny to compare to my NVidia cards.  The Pi supports CEC.  So the 
Pi, using OpenElec and Kodi as a frontend, is a viable cheap option.

The just-announced ODroid-C1 is the same price as a Pi and seems more 
powerful.  Android and Linux images are supported, so an actual Myth 
frontend may be possible there as long as hardware mpeg2 deinterlacing 
is supported.

As for NUCs and Chromeboxes, you may want to check the Kodi forums even 
if you plan on using MythFrontend.  They are quite popular there and 
they each have discussion threads with reports from Linux users.  Just 
beware that different models have different capabilities.