[mythtv-users] Fronted advice

[Damian]

On 25/03/2015 22:39, Larry Kennedy wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 3:50 PM, Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org
> <mailto:eric at lisaneric.org>> wrote:
>
>     On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 2:03 PM, Damian <myth at surr.co.uk
>     <mailto:myth at surr.co.uk>> wrote:
>     > I need it to be capable of HD playback and it will be connecting to a BenQ
>     > W1300 projector (if that's relevant).
>     >
>     > Pretty much the only other use for the frontend will be a bit of browsing in
>     > firefox and 'catchup tv' via iPlayer and ITV player etc.
>     >
>     > Any recommendations? And what sort of price am I looking at? Fingers crossed
>     > for something in the Rasbery Pi type of price bracket, but not holding out
>     > much hope for that :-)
>
>     I don't have any personal experience with them, but you can find many
>     people on this list using ECS Liva systems or similar as frontends.
>     They're generally a little more than what you might pay for a
>     Raspberry Pi, but it might fit your budget and needs.
>
>     Eric
>
>
> +1.  The ECS Liva works great, and it's on sale at Newegg for $120.  For
> less than $10 you can add a 4-port USB hub to fix the lack of USB ports
> (only 2).  I loaded Mythbuntu and it works very nicely. I have not tried
> using either wireless or BT so I can't comment on that.

Thanks for that Larry!

I have been looking into the Liva machine and getting excited by it. It 
doesn't seem powerful enough for the machine for the kids from what I 
read, so I was concerned that it would only be 'so so' as a MythTV 
frontend. Your post has reassured me that it should be fine!

I don't need it to do WiFi or BT, so don't even hare if they don't work 
:-) I'll be switching them both off straight after install.

A couple of questions ...
What is the ECS? What does it stand for? The Liva machines I'm finding 
here in the UK don't seem to mention ECS. They look the same, but just 
want to make sure that I'm not missing something.

The next question is does anyone know the best place to get one from in 
the UK? The best price I've seen so far is about £130, which is way more 
than $120!

Thanks again for all of the advice everyone.

Regards,
Damian