I'm interested in building a silent frontend (preferably fanless)
I would like it to be able to play DVDs, HDTV content.
I also would like the case to look cool (wife approval factor)

I was looking at getting a hush pc, or maybe a mac mini.

Any recommendations?
I already have a backend running.

Please send your specs if you've built one.

Thanks.

I don't really think fanless that can do all that is possible. mainly because of the hdtv requirement. that requires 2.8G or better and I don't think I've heard of anyone running that fanless.

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Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Fanless may indeed be a hard (impossbile??) challenge if you need HDTV decoding power. Diskless is definately possible and saves disk noise and heat dissipation in the frontend. I run a diskless frontend and replaced the fan in the power supply with a 18dBa Papst and a Zalman flower CPU heatsink and 5V 90mm fan. It's not inaudible at close range but very silent. A fanless graphics adapter helps too.
I created an initrd based on Busybox and added the kernel modules from my R4V5 KnoppMyth install. It mounts /usr and /myth over NFS.
You can also look into MiniMyth: http://linpvr.org/

Ditto what everyone else said. I have heard that the Mac mini is not capable of decoding HDTV either.

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Do you code to live, or live to code?
Search LinHES forum through Google

Put the frontend in a cupboard or other room. Get some long cables VGA/svideo, audio. Buy an external dvd drive and long usb cable gonna be much easier in the long run.

I'm going with a roku HD1000. It doesn't have a DVD player, but it looks like it does everything else I want. (Silent--no hard drive, supports HD tv,
cheap...picked one up for just over 200 bucks, looks good)

There's active development to make this a frontend:
http://mythroku.blogspot.com/

If it had a DVD player it would be perfect.

I'd suggest re-reading the description of the Roku. While it maybe able to output to an HDTV, it doesn't mean it can play 720p or 1080i. I realize it has an MPEG2 decode, so does the EPIA, but it cannot playback HDTV. I'd also recommend checking with the author of mythroku. Just a word of caution before interesting your money....

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

This page seems to imply that it can play HD video:

http://www.rokulabs.com/products/photob ... .php#video

I'd think that they'd put that up-front, though, rather than hidden in a FAQ.

Just wanted to add to this thread in case anyone searches for Roku. I've since picked up a PhotoBridge HD1000 and am currently running MythRoku on it.

Pros:
* Completely silent.
* Very small (about the same footprint as my HD tuner or slimline DVD player).
* Can indeed play back both SD and HD recordings--the HD in particular looks fantastic.
* Can be very easily configured to run in 720p or 1080i--just change a menu setting, no monkeying around with modelines.
* Very little configuration to get it working with a MythTV backend (one note is that you have to install the Roku beta firmware before MythRoku will run).
* Easily the cheapest ($200-300 via eBay) and quietest solution for playing back HD recordings.

Cons:
* MythRoku is a VERY scaled-down mythfrontend. In fact it's pretty much playback only... you can delete recordings, but you can't schedule, and there is no access to any of the plugins.
* It only plays back MPEG2 files, so no viewing any of your transcodes like you can with MythVideo.
* No DVD player like with a computer-based frontend (but adding an upsampling or network DVD player would only be another $250 or so, and you're still way under the cost of what a computer capable of HD playback would run you).
* No denoise3d filters, so SD recordings are rattier-looking.
* No current way to use the detected commercials and do a true commercial skip. It does have a "skip 3 minutes" button but you usually have to back up a bit in the program.
* There's a lag between skipping forward and playback starting up again that's not present in computer-based frontends or even with the MediaMVP. This is true even with SD recordings.
* Does not work yet with 0.19 (as of 3/2/06) although they are working on it, and even then it probably won't work right away with 0.19's way of handling live TV.

Even though I have more cons than pros, the Roku is my new frontend for HD playback. This frees up a Shuttle system to replace an aging computer of the Mrs. Win-win situation.

Check out Mcubed HFX, it's fanless, the whole chassi is a big heatpipe:

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20051012/index.html

Expensive but fanless. A dream frontend box.

Or this one

Zalman TNN-300 Fanless PC Enclosure System
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article302-page1.html

Both very neat looking, but both very expensive and much bigger and heavier than the Roku, and you still need to put a computer inside! Nice choice for a full-featured frontend, though.

How quiet are we talking about here? Seriously, utterly eliminating fans and disks is the realm of the fanatic. My machine was built to be quiet, and while I consider that to be an important consideration for a HTPC, I didn't go nuts and do things like suspend the HD with bungee cords, line the box with sound deadening foam, use a laptop HD, ... or any of the dozens of other techniques you can see at http://www.silentpcreview.com/.

When the house is silent, (we're talking 3AM on a still night when the main sounds are the creaking of the wood work from thermal/humidity expansion and contraction) and I'm listening for it, I can hear the KnoppMyth box. However if there's any ambient noise at all or the sound is on for the TV or music it is utterly drowned out. It's about the same level as the hiss in the speakers with no input...

When playing DVDs in particular, my Shuttle's fan makes a very annoying "RRRrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrrrr" sound. All the post-processing I guess. Plus this was the front end in the bedroom so only the TV's speakers, as opposed to the frontend/backend on the big TV with the 5.1 system.

With the Roku, the only noise audible is the fan on the LCD TV.

AMD's new AM2 processors due out Q2 will have a low power version available: 35 watts TDP !! If you can't keep that cool with a low noise fan....

Then if you couple that to ATI mobility 3200 chipset at 8w all thats left is to get a fanless video card.

Hope this helped,
Popa Tim