[mythtv-users] Mac Mini Core Solo as FE/BE Combo?

[Andrew Close]

On 3/22/07, Jarod Wilson <lists at wilsonet.com> wrote:
<snip/>
> Okay, soooo.... I've got my 1.66 duo mini outputting to my hdtv at
> 1920x1080p, 60Hz refresh, digital audio passing through to my amp,
> etc. For the most part, playback is about as perfect as it gets. No
> noticeable difference from my GeForce 6200TC, anyhow. However, every
> once in a while, I'm seeing X spike up to 99% cpu usage for a bit,
> which leads to a bit of jitter in the picture. Appears to only be on
> 720p stuff, so maybe an Xv scaling issue -- should note that I'm
> running the bleeding-edge intel driver code from the Fedora
> development tree (which matches more or less identically from hg tip
> in xorg's mercurial repo). But for the most part, schweetness. And
> damn, you can't beat the silence. Oh, and on the memory usage front,
> while playing back HDTV, top shows ~33% memory usage for mythfrontend
> and another 33% for X, so it would seem 2GB is definitely better for
> a mini than 1GB, since that's roughly 1.33GB there...
>
> Left on my todo list:
>
> - Get non-digital audio outputting correctly (oops, just noticed this
> wasn't working, but I think I know what's up here)
> - Get the internal IR receiver working with lirc (still using my usb
> mce receiver atm)
> - See if there are any open bugs and/or debugging I can do to
> eliminate the occasional hiccups (helps to have someone in the office
> who is actively working on the driver... :)
> - Figure out what to do with my prior frontend

so, is it fairly safe to say that with Linux installed the macmini
Core duo 1.66GHz+ makes a great frontend (with a bit of work)?
i was considering upgrading my FE/BE system to handle HD output.  but
maybe i'll just leave it as is and make it a dedicated BE and pick up
a mini as my FE...
any caveats?