Building / Buying a MythTV box

[Jarod Wilson]

On Apr 14, 2009, at 11:50 AM, Greg Rundlett wrote:

>>>
>>> Nb: your cost for the Dell Studio Hybrid is a bit high. Well, at  
>>> least if
>>> you're willing to look at the Dell outlet store for one. The one I  
>>> have cost
>>> me $409 delivered -- MA tax included. :)
>>>
>>> Mine is a Core 2 Duo @ 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD, 802.11n  
>>> Broadcom wifi card,
>>> CD/DVD burner, wireless keyboard and mouse included.
>>
>> Interesting machine! Inexpensive. Small. Nice design.  How quiet is  
>> it?
>
> Mine doesn't work yet, so it's really quiet ;-)  All kidding aside,
> when it is powered on, the fan noise is barely perceptible - so I'd
> say it would work well in the Living Room.

That's where mine is, inside the A/V cabinet. Its a bit bulkier,  
uglier and slightly louder than the Mac Mini it replaced (core duo  
1.66, gma950 graphics), but more powerful, and still reasonably quiet.  
However, I'm really thinking about replacing it with one of the new  
core 2 duo nvidia graphics Mac Minis...

>> Jarod, what do you use for your mythtv remote control on this device?

An MCE USB receiver dongle nested underneath the machine, between the  
stand legs. Rather inconspicuous there, can really only tell its there  
when its registering IR signals and the red led in it lights up.

>> I think that's the only piece of external hardware I'd need.
>> Also, which video output do you use?

My TV has DVI inputs, so I'm using straight DVI at 1920x1080p.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod at wilsonet.com