[mythtv-users] Cheap frontend for HD

[Joseph Fry]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 12:32 PM, Kirk Bocek <t004 at kbocek.com> wrote:

>
>
> On 6/24/2015 9:39 AM, Larry Kennedy wrote:
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 12:20 PM, Tom Harris <thom.j.harris at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>  On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 8:54 PM, Nick Rout <nick.rout at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 2:09 AM, paul < <thannet at gmail.com>
>>> thannet at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>  All very interesting. Perhaps if there was enough willing to support
>>>> the Pi with some cash, then you never now there may be someone to take on
>>>> the challenge.
>>>>
>>>> I have tried Kodi, worked quite well, but the interface was too much of
>>>> a culture change for all of us in the house. At vote was taken, and we all
>>>> prefer the simple familiar Mythfrontend.
>>>>
>>>
>>>  I just forced it. You get used to it.
>>>
>>
>>   I also tried Kodi, and while there is a learning curve in getting used
>> to the new UI, it's not a showstopper.
>>
>>  The blocker for me was the slow 'skip ahead' responsiveness.   Myth
>> Frontend is amazingly fast, Kodi on Openelec/Pi2 was slow
>>
> I wonder how much of that is related to the fact that Kodi doesn't use
mythtv's seektable.  I sometimes have slow skip-ahead on my primary
frontend (full power pc with nvidia) on videos.

I suspect that we would find that a full frontend solution would have a
faster seek than kodi for this reason alone.

>
>>
>  I would definitely be willing to pitch in some cash if it would help
>> move a MythTV frontend along.
>>
>
>  Given that an ECS Liva can run a MythTV frontend very well, I have to
> wonder if the trade-offs in user satisfaction and the effort required to
> make MythTV work on a device that costs about half as much is worth it?
>
>
> And if that $80 price is for real, that is actually very close to the real
> price of a Raspberry Pi: $30 for the board, $10 for a case, $10 for memory,
> $10 for micro-USB cable and power plug, $10 for HDMI cable.
>

This is assuming that your actually going to buy all of that crap.  Rather
than a case, anchor the pi to a peice of sturdy cardboard using zipties
then screw the cardboard to the vesa mount on the back of the tv.  Or if
you really must have a case (because you don't like to dust?), just make
one out of cardstock using one of the printable templates online. Grab the
memory card and charger off your old phone and your good to go.  HDMI
cables are a common cost for both devices... if your going to do the vesa
mount thing, you can get really short HDMI cables for a couple bucks from
adafruit or monoprice.  I bought nothing more than the Pi2 and a 1 foot
hdmi cable, and have enough old stuff laying around to be able to support
3-4 more of them.

One other thing that everyone is overlooking is that, if your tv doesn't
have HDMI-CEC, you can wire a IR receiver directly to the GPIO pins on the
PI and your good to go.  The TSOP38238  is $2 at adafruit, pretty cheap
compared to a usb receiver.

Finally, if you really insist on buying that stuff... you can get it much
cheaper than $40... the case is the only component that you might spend $10
on.
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