Just as point of reference, I occasionally use my Mac (a powerbook g4
1.25Ghz) as a wireless frontend for MythTV. I'd have to say that it
works great. I guess it is pretty comparable to (perhaps a little
better than) the Mac Mini in terms of performance, and I have
absolutely no problems with the MythFrontend binary for Mac. I'm only
running SD but it works really well. I *think* I could run HD, but I
have no real basis for that assumption. I think its reasonable to
assume that a Mac Mini would not be able to do HD. Apple did,
however, increase the RAM included with the mini - which should be
sufficient for a frontend and OSX, they have two models with built-in
WiFi and Bluetooth as well. Finally, there is a rumour currently that
Apple is silently upgrading the processor speed as well. The official
Apple page is here: http://www.apple.com/macmini/
I've considered many of the other options that have been mentioned
here as well. For me the Roku, although great in terms of size,
price, and quietness - its a no-starter for me because it doesn't
support the full MythFrontend functionality. I don't think its
possible to get it to play MPEG4, DiVX, .AVIs, etc. which is probably
60% of my usage.
I do have a Pundit (original, not "-R") and am very happy with it --
but I'm not sure if those are still available. I asked a local shop
about getting another one and they said they've been discontinued
(although I think it may still be possible to track some down). I
have my Pundit sitting, literally, 18 inches from my ear right now
and I can barely hear a whisper from it. Although it is a little too
loud with a DVD in it cranking away at 16X, but that's to be expected.
I like the Mac as a frontend and, if I couldn't source another
original Pundit (which would be cheaper) then I would seriously
consider getting a Mac Mini for this purpose. Its a little more
expensive, but I haven't seen anything else that can compare in terms
of form factor and looks. Also, it would take me about 15 minutes -
tops - from taking the Mac Mini out of the box to have it working
with my backend. Even with all my experience with the Pundit, I
would set aside an afternoon to get that configured, tweaked, and
running.
Hope this info is helpful to someone!
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