[mythtv-users] Lowest cost of a quality MythBox

[Brian Wood]

Andrew Burgess wrote:
>> I suppose it's theoretically possible to find a "junker" of a sub-2Ghz.
>> PC in a dumpster or a company giveaway, or some surplus outfit. You
>> would still need a capture device or two, and even the cheapest frame
>> buffer cards or low-cost digital units would start to push you towards
>> the $100 mark, even if the rest of the PC was free.
> 
> Unless you have cable tv and a set top box, then you might get away with
> just a firewire cable. Not sure if that reduces cpu requirements,
> I know firewire is digital but is it compressed digital?

It's an MPEG stream AFAIK, you still have to decode it. Also most cheap
PCs don't have F/W, so you'd likely have to invest in a card for that.

You'd still need a decent machine and some reasonable video hardware. I
just don't see how to do that for under $100 without some charitable
donations.

Also, even though 500GB drives can now be had for about $99, and smaller
ones are even cheaper, you do need some storage capacity.

BEWW