Unfortunately, I regret buying a minimac. I haven't found a good
use for it except as a paperweight. A better use would have been
to buy a PC of the same form factor with lots of bells and whistles for
about the same price. However, this is just my opinion.<br>
<br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 8/31/05, <b class="gmail_sendername">Andrew Morley</b> <<a href="mailto:Andrew@teabreak.fsnet.co.uk">Andrew@teabreak.fsnet.co.uk</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I'm at an awkward stage with Myth.<br><br>My back end is pretty much complete and works a treat. I bought the<br>slowest second-hand P4 machine that the local second-hand computer<br>shop (<<a href="http://www.computer-resale.co.uk/">
http://www.computer-resale.co.uk/</a>> - it's a great place) could<br>sell me, installed Gentoo, two Hauppauge Nova-T cards and Myth and<br>everything worked pretty easily. Kudos to the developers, the Gentoo<br>ebuild maintainers and the many HOWTO authors. It records stuff
<br>reliably and dishes out the video to either a front end running on<br>the same machine (in the study) or to my PowerBook plugged in via<br>100-baseT. It doesn't work too well wirelessly, but that's no<br>surprise.<br>
<br>So, now the difficult bit. The back end will be hidden away (in the<br>attic, probably). It is time to buy a front end system. I want<br>something quiet, above all, so was considering either a Mac mini or a<br>VIA EPIA system. It would be controlled only via a remote control -
<br>I've no plans to provide it with a pointing device or to use it for<br>general computing.<br><br>While most people have the idea that Macs are expensive, it seems to<br>me that a Mac mini actually costs less than an EPIA system with a
<br>comparably nice looking case. However I'm not so confident that I<br>can turn a Mac mini into a completely remote-controllable system.<br>With no serial ports, I can't see how I can use it with LIRC. There<br>are USB-based remote control receivers for Mac use, but they come
<br>with remote controls with only very few buttons and I don't expect<br>they can be used with any other remote.<br><br>So: Has anyone successfully built a complete Mac OS X front end<br>system, playing Myth, DVDs, ripped CDs, ripping CDs and DVDs etc, all
<br>controlled from the remote. Or.... should I go for the EPIA? Or...<br>have I overlooked any other machine?<br><br>Finally how quiet is the Mac Mini? It has a fan, which I couldn't<br>hear in the shop, but then shops are noisy. EPIA 8000s are truly
<br>silent.<br><br>Andrew<br>--<br>--<br>--------------------------------------------------<br>Andrew Morley | Cambridge, | Email: ABMorley<br>
| England.
| @<a href="http://iee.org">iee.org</a><br>--------------------------------------------------<br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>mythtv-users mailing list<br><a href="mailto:mythtv-users@mythtv.org">
mythtv-users@mythtv.org</a><br><a href="http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users">http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users</a><br><br><br></blockquote></div><br>