<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>My poorman’s frontend is composed of a dell 5150 laptop with a fx5200 video card in it which I run diskless. I use with XvMC and it has served me well for a few years watching SD and even HD from firewire although the CPU fan sounds like a hurricane. Recently I got my HDPVR up and running but as expected, I can’t watch any of the HDPVR from this frontend. So it is time to do something. My first idea was to scrap the laptop (although it look nice among the other electronics and is fairly low power) and buy a used tower from ebay that has a VDPAU card or at least a PCIe slot in it. Looks like I can get a Dell 380 for less than $100 and add in a $30 nvidia 210 card. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The other option that I keep hearing little notes about is the upcoming crystal HD cards. I believe that they are available in a form that would replace the wireless network card (which I don’t use) in the dell laptop. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Can anyone tell me about how the development of the Crystal card is going within Mythtv. And of course all comments, suggestions and criticism of the above are welcome<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>