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Cheapest, smallest form rig for MythTV front+backend

I dumped cable and moved to OTA. I have a working HDHomerun dual tuner box that streams via XBMC to my laptops. I own one Popcorn Hour for each TV I have because they stream off a ZFS NAS (which this forum helped me build 2y ago!). I was led to believe my PCH could handle DLNA, but they don't do it natively, and the HDHomerun model I have doesn't even support DLNA.

Initially my plan was to buy an Intel NUC for each TV, but after looking at the price... they're too expensive for what they'll do.

So while I thought of a solution, I thought I'd use my main PC with WMC, and I purchased a use Xbox 360 to act as extender until then.

But now I can't stream LiveTV to my extender because I get a Video Error. It's a codec problem with the host PC. I tried for three hours to make it work, had help from Shark007 forums, but even he said he had no idea what the problem was. So I would have to reformat my main PC just so some conflicting codecs would be removed.

Not worth it.

So my only option now is to build a new rig for each TV. Specifically, something powerful enough to run a front and backend on the TV in the living room. The other rigs could be less powerful since theyd only run the front end.

Can I build something that will do that and cost me less than a NUC?

What is your price range for this NUC like system,....?

Since a new Haswell generation of Intel NUC products is or will be available soon its likely that the price will drop on the older Ivy Bridge versions. Also Keep in mind that the NUC is a barebones system requiring RAM, relatively expensive mSATA SSD and possibly more like USB HDD depending on your needs.

So a price range is helpful place to start,....

I've seen a few codec issues with Windows Media Center before in my own use. Typically I was able to correct it by removing applications that installed the codec and or codec itself and cleaning up with a utility or two. One such helpful utility was the "Microsoft Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility" which worked with subsequent versions of Media Center. It basically detected the codecs on the system, notified you if they were Media Center compliant and let you switch between them (force Media Center to use a user specified codec rather then whatever it defaulted to when some wayward codec was installed).

Ideally under 500$ all in.

I've been looking at craiglist and the likes. I could always buy a used WMC HTPC.

How many TVs and is the $500 each TV or all of them together? I suspect all of them which is why the "how many TVs" question.

Do you have any size requirements to meet, as in do you want it to be small like the NUC or can it be a larger device like the 360 or something? Also any concerns about power usage? The 360 IIRC isn't known to sip power and most PCs aren't either.

Don't care about power at all. I probably have the cheapest residential rates of the continent here.

500$ is for the machine that will run front+backend (and store recorded shows)
Ideally for other TV I'd like to keep it to 300$

The front+backend machine could be as big as an xbox 360 or bigger (I can hide it if necessary). I'm not overly concerned about esthetics.

Ideally for the other TV nothing bigger than a console.

I just built two front ends and converted my SAMBA machine to be the back end.

One front end was the AMD Sempron 145, the second core unlocked. ($38.00)
Cheap 64GB SSD
An Asus Geforce GT520
I used an Antec Minuet case, but since then moved to microatx cases.
8GB of RAM, cheap microATX gigabyte board, and a $6 HDMI cable.
Handles HD, steams 1080p mp4 files, watching Southpark Studios on it right now.

The other backend was an 65W Athlon X2 340 which runs about $45.00, but I used a GT620 in that one, a laptop drive I had sitting around, Silverstone PS08B case ($38.99), and Corsair CX430 ($40.99). I think I used a Corsair Vortex, can't hear it at 6in. Hides under a night stand in the bed room.

The backend is an A10-5700 (65W), runs samba, mythtv backend, and plex for viewing when out of the house.
Can record two shows, watch one, and stream a file via plex.
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