SFF HTPC?

Ramshackles

Ramshackles

Ramshackles

Associate
Joined
24 Jan 2006
Posts
33
Evening,

I've been toying with the idea of a clienter/server environment for htpc usage. A server with a bunch of tv-tuners and storage to service a few small clients.

I only so far know of sagetv, mythtv and beyondtv that support this kinda of client/server environment, are there others out there? Any idea why MS didn't think of this? :)

---

What kind of hardware would these small clients need in order to playback hd material stored on the server? I'm not sure if the server does the decoding and then transfer to the client?

---

What are the best solutions as small clients for this? I've been looking at the mac mini and the shuttle mini X 200M (configurable), any other products worth mentioning?

---

Is this idea totally FUBARed? :)
 
I think mediaportal has a TVServer module. I just use my htpc for playback, not recording tv or anything, so I haven't looked into it. As regards clients, I put together a small htpc myself in this case: http://www.hipergroup.com/English/products/hmc-1x53x.html .

Hiper Media PC Case (this is awesome, only 6cm high or thereabouts)
CPU Cooler for the above
AMD X2 3800EE
Abit NF-M2
1GB Corsair Value 667MHz
500GB Seagate
NEC AD-7630A (Slim slot loading DVDRW)
MS Media Centre Remote

Came to just under £300. Probably even cheaper now. This handles H.264 encoded 1080p fine. from what you've decribed, clients would do the decoding. As long as you have a dual core CPU under the hood, you should be fine. RAM and GPU are pretty unimportant.
 
Thanks, you've been really helpfull :)

If I were to go with a shuttle, which of these would be best?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-098-SH&groupid=43&catid=110&subcat=508
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-092-SH&groupid=43&catid=110&subcat=343

Differences obviously being AM2 or C2D, but also the chipsets features comes to mind. HDCP on the AM2 atleast, not sure how big a deal that will have in the future.

Either that or I'm gonna buy a mac mini or the shuttle x200, both have a core 2 duo 2ghz mobile cpu and 2 gb ram.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom