Re: [PLUG] low footprint linux boxen for streaming video

[Rich Freeman <r-plug@thefreemanclan.net>]

On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 8:34 AM, Bill Patterson <patterson@computer.org> wrote:
> What recommendations do list members have for boxen that have a very low
> space and power footprint that can stream video?  It seems this is not
> easily done with the Raspberry Pi.   What other small Linuxian devices could
> be recommended? Thanks.

So, this will be more expensive than some of the more embedded
options, but I've been running Mini-ITX systems for my mythtv
front-end.  My current one is is Atom-based with an Nvidia ION
chipset.  It can play just about anything HD, though if it has to
resort to software decoding it can be borderline on the CPU (heck, my
Phenom II sometimes struggles with software decoding HD).

The boards typically run around $100, and you still need RAM, power,
case, etc.  For power you can often get by really cheap with those
micro power supplies for the board itself.  If you want to start
sticking disks in it that probably won't cut it.  I run mine diskless
(PXE boot, but you could boot it from flash or something also).

If there are better mythtv front-end options out there I'm always interested.

Rich
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