At some point in the not-too-distant future, I’d like to replace my Myth frontend. I have been doing some thinking about what I really need for this computer, which sits with my home theatre equipment and makes me watch the TV I want to watch.
The current incarnation has a single Hauppauge tuner card for recording. I also have a dual-tuner card in my main computer for a total of three. The magic of MythTV means that I can watch any recordings on the frontend.
I am now starting to think that I don’t really need to record on my frontend. I could do all of the recording on my main computer, and just do playback on the frontend. That would eliminate the need for much storage on the frontend, so I could eliminate the hard drive altogether and just have a few gigs of flash for the operating system. Everything else could be on a network share.
I don’t have any immediate plans to go to high definition, so the processor needs for playback-only would be pretty minimal by modern standards. A little Atom processor should do it. The Atom + motherboard should sip little enough power that it can be passively cooled, if the case is right.
So, my list of requirements becomes:
- Intel Atom or similar low-power processor.
- digital video output (DVI-D or DVI-I or HDMI) and digital audio output (S/PDIF coax or fiber).
- a motherboard that can boot from USB (or a CF card or something).
- some kind of remote control input. I haven’t quite worked this one out yet: it could just be a serial or USB port with some generic IR receiver.
- a nice little case that blends well into a home theatre rack.
- no fans, hard drive, or other moving parts.
- ethernet.
I have looked around, but can’t find anything that hits all of the key points there. (Some of the contenders I have looked at are Shuttle and Hush. The picoPSU could figure into the plan too.)
Anybody have any suggestions?
October 26th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I don’t know much about pre-made consumer devices for doing what you want, so I’ll talk about building one instead.
When it comes to small, low-power machines for HTPC, the two contenders right now are Intel Atom and VIA Nano based systems. Here are some useful links:
* http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/atom-nano-review.ars
* http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Athlon-Atom-Nano-power,2036.html
* http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/atoms/default.asp?page=1
As far as digital video and audio output is concerned, it looks like DVI-D output availability is still very rare, and none seems to offer digital audio out. However, if you opt for a board with PCIe-x16 expansion slot, you can install a RadeonHD 4350 video card which offers an on-board sound controller that can output audio via HDMI. The catch is that the open source drivers do not support this yet, and ATI’s binary are notorious for falling flat on its face for a lot of people. Also, the 4350 just entered the market, and may be hard to get.
For remotes, I’ve no idea: it’s not something I’ve considered myself yet. Booting from USB shouldn’t be much of an issue, AFAICS. As for cases, there are plenty of them out there, some even with built-in remote control features. Again, then, driver support is the issue.
Having absolutely no mechanical parts is actually a tricky area as the chipset paired with Atom isn’t cool enough to be run passively, and neither can the Nano. However, people report that the bundled fans are very quiet. If you insist on running them passively, there needs to be some major air movement in the case, which is difficult when they are small.
Ethernet shouldn’t present any issues at all.
October 27th, 2008 at 7:13 am
I am currently going through the same thing – switching from a combined FE/BE to a split solution.
I have settled on the AppleTV as my frontend. It does have a harddrive, but the thing is completely silent and passively cooled.
I actually use XBMC as my frontend, but some people install Linux on the thing and run the MythTV Frontend.
The only catch is that it only has 256MB Ram. That is sufficient for XBMC, but might be in the low end for Linux+MythTV FE.
You can read more about the AppleTV + XBMC here:
http://xbmc.org/davilla/2008/10/01/whats-this-xbmc-for-mac-running-on-the-appletv/
October 28th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Kobski, now you did it. You mentioned the A-word. Prepare to be assimilated by Greg…
October 28th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
That being said, there’s also the Dell Studio Hybrid that looks kinda cool, but is probably too much for what you want.
October 29th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
This project is just too much fun. Yang is right on about there not being much commercial support for this type of thing. It seems like the computer you describe should exist, but it’s oddly hard to find.
On the one hand you see a lot of crippled consumer devices, like the Tivo or AppleTV that just don’t offer the flexibility you want (without modding). On the other hand you find small, flexible computers that fall just short on connections, noise, or some other issue.
The Shuttle x27 is so close, but misses out on digital audio and a chipset fan. (I would personally go with this one, but I don’t have a digital audio receiver.) There is a horribly done review with OK pictures here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/shuttle-x27-atom,2038.html
I like how Shuttle uses an external power brick to keep the heat out of the case and the noise down.
Newegg has this MSI box that only offers a D-Sub VGA connection (which seems to be common on a lot of atom-based motherboards):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856167032)
System76 offers a nice looking mac-mini-like computer that falls short on your fanless and diskless requirements, but you might be able to swap out the disk for a solid state one:
http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=83
Moving into the configure-it-yourself realm, it seems even harder to find a motherboard that supports what you want. And then you need to find a case that would support the passive cooling requirement. It’s so frustrating because what you want makes total sense, but it seems like the manufacturers are not quite catering to this DIY project.
For a remote, I use one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16880100851
Lirc does a good job with it, and I think your crazy awesome remote would probably also talk to the receiver, but you should check that.
I just installed the Ubuntu 8.10 release candidate and noticed a “Make USB Startup Disk” option on the admin menu. It looks like this makes it easy to install Ubuntu to a USB disk. Then you can probably just set your bios to boot from USB.
Good luck. Let us know what you come up with.
October 29th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
One more thought. When I built my myth front end about two years ago, I seriously coveted this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129030
But, I had to go with a more narrow nMediaPC case to fit in my media cabinet. At that time the majority of DIY options consisted of putting a fully powered computer in a case that looks like a stereo component. It works, but if I were to do the project again now, I would be really tempted by the Shuttle x27.
Here’s another disappointing, tiny commercial option that lacks a DVD drive and optical audio:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220004
June 4th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Brian also suggested this, which looks promising:
http://www.zareason.com/shop/product.php?productid=16203&cat=0&page=1