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

Stroller stroller at stellar.eclipse.co.uk
Thu Jul 30 20:02:19 UTC 2009


On 30 Jul 2009, at 20:44, Simon Hobson wrote:
> Stroller wrote:
>
>> 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.
> ...
>> 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?
>
> Realistically, you aren't going to build a Myth system for less than  
> you can buy an off the shelf box. I doubt if anyone involved has  
> ever thought about it as a cost saving effort - more as a means of  
> getting better features without the lock in to be found on many boxes.

Sorry, I thought it was obvious I didn't want to BEAT the price of one  
of these cheapo units. But I thought to be able to do better than  
TWICE the price. Particularly because one will always have a spare  
hard-drive lying around, and maybe RAM, too.

I guess I was hoping for the £120 - £140 range, buying cheap low-power  
PC components.

It'd obviously be really nice if I had found a cheap set-top-box that  
could be hacked for MythTV, and Neuros OSD seems like the right price,  
but it looks like it's maybe at a bit of a dead end?

In this case, quality isn't of the highest priority. Composite out is  
fine, but DVI/HDMI would be really nice for future-proofing. It only  
has to do SD, and a single tuner.

If it's price-comparable with the £60 Atom-based board(s?) currently  
available then the "first ION board with PCI socket" post looks ideal,  
but only if I can find a case which isn't silly money.

Stroller.





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