[mythtv-users] Best latest Ion Boards?

[Brad Fuller]

On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 10:35 AM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On Saturday 28 November 2009 11:19:15 am John Drescher wrote:
>
>> > Is ION still the best?
>
>>
>
>> To me I have not totally been sold on this. I mean a near bottom of
>> the line dual core2 or AM3 system would be faster than the ION for
>> about the same price but use around 10W more than the ION at idle. But
>> then when you are looking for a box that can sit in the living room
>> good looking HTPC cases cost more than the rest of the system. To me
>> this is a big frustration since the $30 walmart special DVD player
>> includes a remote and LCD and has a descent enough looking case to be
>> able to sit in the living room.
>
> It's not a case of "faster", the ION allows you to use the hardware decoding
> of VDPAU, and, not counting decoding, a frontend does not need significant
> CPU horsepower. ION is not a CPU, it's a chipset that includes HD-capable
> graphics. The Atom CPUs usually paired with the ION chipset are slower than
> low-end C2Ds or AMD units, but who cares?

Right, it seems to be an idle combo. Just wondered if there were any
recent ideas for a living room FE.
I'm surprised that there are not more that have chimed in, yea or nay,
regarding the IONs.

Let me ask a more focused question: Which ION board (the mfr, that is)
are people happy with that fits their HD needs?

-- 
Brad Fuller