[mythtv-users] most energy efficient myth frontend?

[Johnny]

> During playback, I have found that whether you use th eCPU for video
> decoding or you use GPU for the video decoding, the power consumption is
> within a few watts. When not during playback, I use S3 suspend. Therefore,
> it is not an issue.
> If small is a concern, then an NVIDIA+ATOM ION platform is likely the best
> choice as you can build a Mini-ITX, fanless solution.
>
> However, I have chosen an NVIDIA+AMD solution. While it is larger
> (Micro-ATX), it is still quiet (assuming a case with quite fans (e.g. a case
> with 120mm fans) and it is power efficient since I use the remote (as well
> as a script) to trigger S3 suspend when the frontend is idle. In addition,
> because I use the CPU to decode, I am not at the mercy of the video driver
> providers for new codecs and existing codecs with different parameters.

I don't think he was just concerned with overall power usage. I
believe he was concerned about max power draw because he is building
this into an RV, which I assume will need to be able to run off of a
battery or small generator. Hence the requirement of less than 2A @
12V = 24 watts. I don't think you are going to get under that with any
normal Nvidia + AMD or Intel solution. You will need to go ultra low
power like VIA, ARM, or Atom. However the only low power system I know
of that can play back HD without transcoding is going to be the Nvidia
ION. Others on the list have reported their ION systems running in the
neighborhood of 20-25 while playing back HD.