Found anymore info or had any luck with components? I just ran across a possibly free Dell 8200 laptop, so.....I'm seeking some info on making the laptop work for mythtv.

so far nothing new....the little project is gonna be a little delayed...i bought a new tv instead

Another solution would be using a separate backend and turn the laptop into a dedicated frontend. I have experience in setting up an Inspiron 4000, 5000e and 4100 (I basically borrow all available laptops from work) into a diskless frontend. If you use a tuner that does hardware MPEG2 enconding or a DVB adapter any PIII/Athlon PC should do as a backend.
This way you can leave the harddisk of the laptop untouched when you boot over the network. Laptops make very quiet frontends.

that is an interesting solution...i will look into that option as well

thanks