[mythtv-users] dual use box, MythTV & parents PC

[Jean-Rene Cormier]

On Thu, 2003-09-04 at 12:37, Chad Vogelsong wrote:
> I'm looking for some advice on whether this setup is possible, how
> difficult it will be and any advice or programs I might need.
> 
> My parents current Linux PC is about 4 feet away from their TV and it is
> due to be upgraded in the very near future.  They like the idea of a
> MythTV box to replace their DVD player and to be able to play my
> downloaded movies / DVD rips / music / etc.  I was looking at combining
> their MythTV box and their PC into one machine to save on hardware cost
> / space / power consumption / etc.
> 
> What I'm thinking for hardware:
> --Desktop case
> --Motherboard with Linux supported onboard LAN, video and sound for the
> general purpose PC.  Also an AGP slot & 4 PCI slots.
> --Sound Blaster Live 5.1 PCI sound card for TV sound
> --GeForce4 MX440 PCI w/TV out for MythTV.
> --256 MB RAM
> --80 - 160 GB HDD (large for when I move out and take the media server
> with me, they can still be able to record & watch shows)
> --When I move out, they will get 2 tuner cards (probably 1 bttv driver
> card & 1 PVR-250) put into their system, but not at initial
> construction.
> --Athlon XP 1900+ or above
> 
> What I want to do is use GeForce4 & SB Live 5.1 card for MythTV on
> display "localhost:0".  "localhost:1" will use the onboard video card &
> sound for my parents to use as a normal desktop PC.  I have read some
> HOWTO's on tldp.org for using dual video cards as a starting point and I
> have read through some archived posts on MythTV about dual displays.
> 
> One of the problems that I thought about was a control issue.  How to
> use a keyboard on the PC and a remote at the same time with 2 different
> displays?  This is one of the things I'm stumped on.  Their PC use
> averages maybe about 20-30 minutes per day, basically to check e-mail
> and eBay and write the occasional document.  I don't even think they
> would mind if they couldn't watch TV and be on the computer at the same
> time.  
> 
> Maybe somebody could offer some direction or even if this is possible or
> not.  All advice, ideas and constructive criticism are greatly
> appreciated.

I'm looking for a way to do this too, but I want to be able to use the
computer and watch TV at the same time. I think pretty much the only way
of doing this would be by using 2 X servers with the patches from
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/3100/1/.

The difference is in my setup I only have 1 video card (GeForce4MX) and
I'm having trouble getting X to start on the TV only, I'll probably have
to play with the twinview settings a bit more. If you have 2 video card
it should be easier though. Also if you don't care about not being able
to watch TV while on the computer then you could just load 2 X servers
on different VTs, you'd just have to switch from vt7 to vt8 when you
want to watch TV.

Jean-Rene Cormier