[mythtv-users] Cheap and quiet hardware for SD MythTV - possible?

Matthew Harrison lists at mwharrison.co.uk
Mon Aug 3 21:55:12 UTC 2009



Stroller wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> My mum's Freeview box has just died - since a replacement is £30, I 
> started thinking about a PVR instead. Off the shelf ones are £80 to 
> £100 and this naturally started me thinking about MythTV, but I'm a 
> bit stumped on how to do MythTV without doubling the price.
>
> I'm seeing £211 for an Asus Eee PC 900A, £195 for an Apple TV, a local 
> supplier does Atom-based motherboards (inc CPU, AIUI) for £60 inc VAT, 
> but then I can't see affordable cases to go with them.
>
> I haven't been following MythTV in a couple of years, so I guess I was 
> kinda hoping there'd be competitive options for a set-top-box by now. 
> Either an Atom-based PC, or a MythTV-friendly Linux distro shoehorned 
> onto a regular set-top-box, or something like the Neuros OSD. My 
> Googling isn't coming up with much suitable - it's kinda a shame the 
> hardware options don't seem to have improved much in the last couple 
> of years [1]. Or am I missing something?
>
> Any suggestions gratefully received,
>
> Stroller.
>
>
>
> [1] I don't mean to criticise MythTV when I say that.
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>

Do you need the front and back end to be on the same machine so long as 
the price is ok?

I run a recycled PC as the backend (there's always something powerful 
enough on Freecycle and you can hide the backend in a loft/basement so 
it doesn't have to be quiet.

For the frontend I run a Hauppauge media MVP which I picked up second 
hand on ebay for £25.
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/mediamvp_datasheet.htm

It doesn't have all the features of a full frontend, but it's a hardware 
decoder and plays back SD with no tearing, etc. The only problem I get 
is if I have a poor signal on on a recording and the picture breaks up, 
sometimes it throws the audio sync off and you have to hit FF/RW to fix it.

Matt,


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