[mythtv-users] Very Low Cost Frontend

[Jeremy D. Eiden]

I use a NUC just like that in our bedroom, it's a celeron early version 
of the NUC.  My wife is the only one that really watches TV in there.  
She's terribly fussy, but I haven't heard any complaints about it.  I'm 
still running Myth .28 as well.

It does use VAAPI, and it's not unduly slow or anything. Picture looks 
good to me, and no complaints from her.  We're don't have any shows in 
4k however. She doesn't use picture-in-picture or anything.

I also run Kodi on a couple of RP4s.  The plugin for Myth works fine, 
the picture looks really good - but I much prefer the 
seeking/fast-forward skills of mythfrontend.  Because I'm still on .28, 
I haven't tried any of the fancy new mythfrontends for the RP4.

If you are just running mythfrontend, you really don't need more than 
4GB of RAM.  I'm positive I have that in my NUCs.  If not less.

For reference, I have one headless backend, use the HDHomerun Prime with 
Comcast (so compressed signal).  Stream to 3 TV's and one computer.

On 12/29/19 10:20 AM, Ken Mandelberg wrote:
> Jim
>
> Thanks for all the info. I am interested in the RPi4 solution, but 
> still concerned about no GPU support.
>
> I notice that Newegg has a low end 7th generation NUC for $138 
> (BOXNUC7CJYH1) thats with a
> 2.0 GHz - 2.7 GHz burst, Dual-Core Celeron J4005 and a UHD 600 
> Graphics. 4GB of ram is $18 (although I would probably go for 8G at $36).
>
> RPi4 with case +fan + power with 4GB, is about $85, so that comparison 
> in cost is $85 vs $156.
>
> I presume the UHD 600 GPU would make use of vaapi (with improvements 
> under the new render).
>
> Which solution would work better running as a frontend running the 
> master?
>
> Right now the 10 year old Macmini FE/BE is running Ubuntu without 
> internal storage, root and media on a huge USB SATA disk. The mini is 
> only USB 2 while the disk is USB 3, so either RPi or NUC would be a win.
>
> (By the way, I run the HDHR-3 for US cable, waiting not so patiently 
> for the HDHR Prime 6.)
>
> Ken
>
>
>
> Jim Abernathy wrote on 12/26/19 8:10 PM: Celeron j4005
>>
>> On 12/26/19 4:57 PM, Ken Mandelberg wrote:
>>> My 10 year old Macmini/HDHR running Ubuntu Myth front/backend is 
>>> having issues. I'm looking for a very low cost replacement. I build 
>>> the trunk frequently, and want the standard frontend not Kodi. The 
>>> Mac has an old Nvida GPU which worked well for years, and I really 
>>> want something with a GPU that Myth supports.
>>>
>>> From what I read there is no GPU support on the PI4, which other 
>>> than would be a nice price point.
>>>
>>> I know a NUC would work, but they start getting pricey once 
>>> configured, and its not clear to me what the cheapest one without 
>>> media format limitations is. I know there are other boxes in similar 
>>> form factor, but don't know if there is a better value than a NUC.
>>>
>>> Storage is not an issue, I already use a large USB disk for both 
>>> root and the media on the mini.
>>>
>>> It seems like even cheap phone/tablet SOCs have better GPUs than the 
>>> old Nvidia.
>>>
>>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>
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