[mythtv-users] Cables and more space...ideas?

[shadestalker at gmail.com]

On 8/12/05, PAUL WILLIAMSON <pwilliamson at mandtbank.com> wrote:
> I've been running MythTV for about a year or so
> now, and have frontends in quite a few rooms.  My
> problem is twofold...
> 
> 1.  Wires.  I have a wife and kids, and all have
> expressed discontent with the wires going from the
> pc to the TV.
> 
> I could probably put all the cables into some sort of wire
> wrap, but I'm interested in more inventive options.  I have
> no idea what I'm talking about here, other than my wife
> floated the idea of taking all the myth boxes out because
> the wires are driving her nuts.  She can live without
> all media available everywhere, or so she says.

Home Depot is a great place to help solve this problem.  You can get
wire protectors to run across floors and enclose or cover wires, cable
ties, and even a sort of plastic cable cuff that comes in multiple
sizes.  Dealing with wiring is part of having computers, so you're
pretty much going to have to just neaten it and make it unobtrusive by
tying it along existing structure such as shelving.  Getting cables in
white is pretty easy, if it's an issue of black cables along a white
wall or baseboard.


> 2.  DVDs on Myth.  I have ripped quite a few (about 40%)
> of our collection to Myth, but I've run out of space and
> need to figure out what my next step is.

If you didn't setup your system using LVM, I don't know what your
options are for growing a filesystem.  It might not be difficult to
add a large disk and designate it as your DVD store while using the
existing storage for recordings.  You don't mention your current case
or what's installed in it, so it's hard to offer much here other than
to point you to online shopping sites. ;)  silentpcreview.com has
reviews and comparisons of the quietest drives available.  My current
pick would be the new 200G Samsung; I have two of their 160G
spinpoints and have been very happy with them.

> My wife thought buying a DVD player for every room where
> we now have a TV is a good idea.  To say that I hate that
> idea is being gentle.  I could probably buy enough disks to
> house the rest of the collection, but I have no more physical
> space in my backend(s), and don't have another computer to
> nfsmount more drives from either.
> 
> I could buy another PC and install some drives in that and
> nfsmount them to the master backend, but I'm looking
> for other options or ideas.
> 
> It's funny that she says in (1) that she can live without all
> media everywhere, but can't live without DVDs everywhere.

I think I would build up my backend to be able to supply capacity
(storage, bandwidth, CPU if transcoding is an issue) and look at how
to supply multiple mythfrontend feeds to the televisions you have. 
I'm looking into using my Xbox, assuming I'm able to get linux onto
it.  Depending on how many frontends you are in need of, this could be
a bigger problem than your storage issues.

You might try putting a replacement frontend in the existing setup to
help with the aesthetics / cabling problems mentioned above, that way
you can go ahead and move the backend to a location more suited to
lots of storage and a higher noise level.