[mythtv-users] live tv over network?

[Dan Boger]

On Mon, Jun 07, 2004 at 03:12:17PM -0700, David Huseby wrote:
> I've read the documentation extensively but nowhere is it explicit
> about the roles of the front end and back end software. From what I
> gather, the back-end coordinates recording of shows and streaming of
> recorded shows and the front-end handles displaying streams as well as
> interacting with the services the back-end offers (i.e. MythGames,
> MythMusic, etc...) One thing I'd like to know...Is it possible to have
> a capture card in the back-end and watch live TV using a front-end
> connected to my TV with some network between the two?

Absolutly, no problem.  One note - I believe anything other than TV is
done on the frontend - Games, Music, Video, etc.
 
> I also noticed that I can have many back-end capture cards, all hooked
> up to different sources. Here's my planned layout and I'd like
> comments and recommendations from the rest of you:
> 
> - I will have a single large capacity (1+TB RAID) disk server running
>   the master back-end server.
> - I will have two slave back-end servers, each with two MPEG2 hardware
>   capture cards. One will be connected to two DirecTV receivers with
>   channel control via serial. The other will be connected to a Sony
>   HD-100 terrestrial HD receiver (channel control via serial) and CCTV
>   from my security system (2 different cameras multiplexed into a
>   single picture.)

Not sure why you need multiple back ends for this - you can have
multiple capture cards in one backend - especially if they're hardware
encoders.

> - I will have a Hush mini-ITX box for each of my TVs. One will be
>   connected to my Mitsu 55" HDTV running (540p interleave to drive the
>   1080i picture), the other will be connected to a regular TV
>   elsewhere in the house.
> - My house is wired with a switched gigabit ethernet network so
>   bandwidth isn't the problem. All computers have gigabit cards in
>   them, except the mini-ITX boxes which have built-in 100baseT.

Should be fine - I get two frontends off an NFS server over 100BaseT
hub.

> I was hoping to be able to watch live TV from any of the four sources
> assuming that nothing is being recorded from the one I want to watch
> (unless of course I'm watching what is being recorded.) If this is
> possible how does myth front-end handle displaying the channel listing
> for the 2 different sources of TV (normal DirecTV and terrestrial HDTV
> broadcasts)? Has anybody tried a similar setup with multiple sources
> on the back-end and front-end display via network?

Not sure about the EPG - or how trasparent is it to switch between the
sources.

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