[mythtv-users] Very Low Cost Frontend

John jksjdevelop at gmail.com
Fri Dec 27 08:41:33 UTC 2019


On 27/12/2019 07:53, Bob Long wrote:
> Jim Abernathy wrote on 27/12/19 11:10 am:
>
> [snip]
>
>> I've done a lot of testing recently. The RPi4 is an excellent backend
>> with HDHR Quatro as a networked tuner. That gives you 4 tuners and the
>> CPU horsepower to handle the recording using a USB3 SATA SSD or even
>> hard drive.
>>
>> The good news is the RPi4 can also handle 4 recordings and do the
>> mythtv-frontend at the same time. For me that's 4 OTA mpeg2 programs
>> while displaying a previously recorded program. The quality is quite
>> good for the video playback.
>>
>> However a separate FE is slightly better. I've tested a RP3B+ running
>> LibreELEC (KODI) with the kodi-pvr-mythtv addon. I've also tested the
>> FireTV Stick 4K running the Mythtv-frontend and the Mythtv-leanfront.
>> Both are excellent.
>>
>> So for cheapest do a Combo RPi4 FE/BE with a 1TB USB3 SATA SSD using
>> an adapter.  For best leave the RPi4 as a backend only and use the
>> FireTV stick 4K as the frontend.
>>
>> That's the cheapest I've found. Since storage is the same for any
>> solution, the comes down to $25 for the FireTV stick 4K and $100 for a
>> RPi4 4GB DRAM kit.
>>
>> I'm parallel testing both my Core i7 Sandybridge backend with hard
>> drives again the RPi4 backend. Using the FireTV stick 4K and a Shield
>> TV frontend on both. No difference in quality of recordings or playback.
>>
>> Jim A
> Very useful post. Thanks for posting that.
>
Beware that the firestick 4k does not work well with european broadcast 
standards 1080i H264, check its ok with your local standard.

Raspberry Pi works but again with 1080i H264 playback has issues with 
Mythfrontend. Kodi has perfect playback.

VAAPI playback works very well in Myth 31 so unless you get US broadcast 
standard I would stick to a NUC for a combined front & back end.



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