[mythtv-users] Multiple frontends/backend storage with digital boxes

[Hans Friedrich]

Hello,

I have been meaning to get a Tivo for a while, but after surveying the 
current box and subscription options I was a little disappointed until I 
came across MythTV on sourceforge. I was very, very impressed after a 
little research, especially by the client/server architecture with all 
the possibilities that entails.

However, I'm having a little trouble wrapping my head around exactly how 
I should breakdown the setup for my house. If you guys had some advice 
for how I should distribute tuner cards and setup frontend/backend 
architecture for the following setup, that would be great:

I currently have three digital cable boxes, each hooked up to a tv in a 
different room in my house. I want to be able to watch a live show and 
record a live show simultaneously from each of my digital cable boxes. I 
want all my recorded shows, as well as my 10,000+ mp3s, to be stored on 
a fourth pc running mythtv and available on my tvs. this fourth box will 
be used strictly for storage, but not used for playing or video, and 
will be located in my home office.

What would be the best way to organize this system w/regard to mythtv? 
I'd like my pcs located next to my tvs to be as thin of clients as 
possible. Ideally I'd be able to run the pcs located by my tvs as 
frontends only, and do all recording on my Big Box, but I don't know how 
this would be possible considering the need for my digital cable box and 
my tv tuner cards to be located together.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Hans