Frontends
Main
Extra
Requirements
- HDMI/DVI out
- 5.1 audio output
- Connect to Z5500 (Optical or Digital Co-ax)
- 1080p video playback
- mini PCI slot? (for [BCM90015][6][?][6])
- Silent
- Integrated IR?
- More RAM than the [ATV1][7][?][7]?
Hardware
- Mac Mini
- Via Epia - Low Power for SD (P3 600MHz)
- Apple TV
- [ASRock][9][?][9] Vision 3D
- Zotac
- Boxee Box - closed hardware, GPL violations
- Intel NUC
- Shuttle XH61V
| Product | Platform | HD | IR | Audio | miniPCI | Price £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AppleTV 1 | x86 | 1080p | yes | optical | yes | ebay £100 |
| Celeron NUC | x86 | 1080p | no | HDMI | yes | 142+ |
| Zotac ID80 | x86 | 1080p | USB | optical | yes | ~300 |
| Zotac [ID17][16][?][16] | x86 | 1080p | USB | optical | yes | 190 |
| Lenovo Q190 | x86 | 1080p | no | optical | no | 158 |
| Acer Revo L80 | x86 | 1080p | no | spdif | 2 | 190 |
| G-Box Midnight | arm | 1080p | yes | hdmi | no | 70 |
| Nano1 Slim+1 | arm | 1080p | yes | hdmi | no | 50 |
| Pivos XIOS DS | arm | 1080p | yes | hdmi | no | 130 |
| [SolidRun][24][?][24] [CuBox][25][?][25] i2 | arm | 1080p | yes | hdmi, optical | no | $80 |
1 Recent Pivos linux builds locked to XIOS hardware. Not compatible with Sumvision or Geniatech boxes ⇑
Cases
http://avrio.co.uk/acatalog/New_cases.html
- GA-L01 mini-ITX
Bandwith and CPU Power
CPU Power
- HD needs at least P4 3GHz
- [XvMC][28][?][28] necessary for HD
- [GeForce][29][?][29] [FX5200][30][?][30] fanless and supports [XvMC][28][?][28]
- Allows Chromakey hack and has colour and contrast adjustment not present on 6-series
CPU Demand
| Task | Min CPU | || | [MPEG2][31][?][31] SD, Play DVD | 600MHz | | [MPEG2][31][?][31] HD | 1GHz AMD + [XvMC][28][?][28] | | [DivX][32][?][32], [XviD][33][?][33], H.264 | ? | | [MPEG4][34][?][34] HD | | | Rip DVD | |
Links
http://tvease.net/
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr1100.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauppauge_Computer_Works#Table_of_products
http://ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Supported_hardware
MythTV performance Hacks
DVB-T coverage checker
http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_silent.php
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~mfgalizi/epia/index.html - VIA EPIA Compact Flash frontend
HD Hardware requirements
http://www.mythic-beasts.com/resources/appletv/
http://www.apple.com/uk/appletv/
http://www.apple.com/uk/appletv/specs.html
http://www.mactel-linux.org/wiki/Dmesg_appletv
http://www.wikiappletv.com/
Best TV Box for XBMC