[mythtv-users] Very Low Cost Frontend

[Bob Long]

Jim Abernathy wrote on 27/12/19 11:10 am:

[snip]

> I've done a lot of testing recently. The RPi4 is an excellent backend
> with HDHR Quatro as a networked tuner. That gives you 4 tuners and the
> CPU horsepower to handle the recording using a USB3 SATA SSD or even
> hard drive.
>
> The good news is the RPi4 can also handle 4 recordings and do the
> mythtv-frontend at the same time. For me that's 4 OTA mpeg2 programs
> while displaying a previously recorded program. The quality is quite
> good for the video playback.
>
> However a separate FE is slightly better. I've tested a RP3B+ running
> LibreELEC (KODI) with the kodi-pvr-mythtv addon. I've also tested the
> FireTV Stick 4K running the Mythtv-frontend and the Mythtv-leanfront. 
> Both are excellent.
>
> So for cheapest do a Combo RPi4 FE/BE with a 1TB USB3 SATA SSD using
> an adapter.  For best leave the RPi4 as a backend only and use the
> FireTV stick 4K as the frontend.
>
> That's the cheapest I've found. Since storage is the same for any
> solution, the comes down to $25 for the FireTV stick 4K and $100 for a
> RPi4 4GB DRAM kit.
>
> I'm parallel testing both my Core i7 Sandybridge backend with hard
> drives again the RPi4 backend. Using the FireTV stick 4K and a Shield
> TV frontend on both. No difference in quality of recordings or playback.
>
> Jim A

Very useful post. Thanks for posting that.

-- 

Bob Long