<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 9:30 AM, Daniel Dunning <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dan3501@yahoo.com">dan3501@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div><br>The cost of the setup at Costco is $799.<br></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br><br>You can buy one of the new Mac Minis for less than that. And it can do VDPAU. Add a firewire HD for storage and a tuner if you want it to be a backend as well. I'd recommend the HDHR, a little more expensive, but dual tuner and network connected so it will work with any foreseeable future computers. If there is ever an AppleTV using a VDPAU chipset, those would make a great frontend machine. The Mac Mini also includes a supported IR receiver. The HDHR also has an IR receiver.<br>
<br>Another option that doesn't look bad with the entertainment gear is a self build. Here's the parts list I used for my frontend only machine. You could add a hard drive and tuner to make it a combo box. I boot from the USB stick, you could probably run the database from it. You could also add a small cheap HDD for the OS and database if you like. I have found it to make a big difference on my machine to separate the database from the recordings drive. It didn't matter at first, but as the system got more use, it did. And I have run the optimize scripts. The motherboard used has HDMI out, but I don't know if sound is working over it as I don't use digital sound on that box. I am using it for video output though. It also has an optical SPDIF port, so there are options. Not as small as a laptop or mac mini, but cheaper and works just as well. <br>
<br><a href="https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=12283828">https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=12283828</a><br><br>The egg lists the CPU as out of stock. Just pick an AM2 chip. It doesn't need a lot. I use a dual core, but with VDPAU I doubt it's necessary. I am using an X2 3800+ in the frontend only machine. With VDPAU enabled, it uses about 5% of CPU most of the time. That's while playing HD MPEG2 and h264. All the media for that box comes in over the network. <br>