[mythtv-users] Are there any docs that describe the split between mythfrontend and mythbackend?

[Dewey Smolka]

> Thank you for clarifying this.  I don't use MythMusic or MythVideo at
> this time.  I do use mythgallery so will need to setup NFS for that.
> 
> I am also considering setting up NFS for the recordings directory since
> I have a TB of space on the master backend system.
> 
> As I understand this now the NFS for recordings is not required but
> allows one to keep all the recordings on one system.

Here is a simplified version of how this works: the backend manages
tuners and recordings through MySQL. When a FE connects to a BE to
play live TV or a recording, it streams the picture, meaning the BE
plays it, the FE displays it. When a FE plays a file through MythVideo
or MythMusic, the FE does the playing and the displaying, as the file
is mounted locally as NFS (or just a local directory).

The recording directory is set up on the BE; The Mythvideo, Music,
Gallery, etc directories are set up on the FEs.

Mounting your recordings directory as NFS will allow you to access and
manipulate the files over a network, but does not affect how those
files are dealt with in Myth. I imagine that messing around with the
recordings files over NFS could also screw with the MySQL tables, or
at least confuse it when it can't find a file where it should be, but
I don't really know that much about it.

For example, let's say you've got a bunch of Simpsons episodes that
you've recorded in MythTV. If the directory is shared as NFS, you can
access the directory from a remote machine and play the files locally
without using Myth FE (assuming the local machine can play back the
.nuvs).

But if you take some Simpsons that came from somewhere else and tried
to copy them into the recordings directory with NFS, they won't show
up in the Play Recordings directory inside of Myth FE, because there's
no MySQL entry for them (at least that's how I understand it).

Here's the way I've got my rig set up: a combined FE/BE that sits next
to the main TV and stores everything on two 250GB drives (with a 20GB
drive for OS, MythTV and ring buffer). I've also got two remote FEs
which are full systems (meaning they're also used for non-Myth
purposes) but which don't have any Myth storage. Each FE has the BE's
/mnt/media/video (for MythVideo), /mnt/media/music (for MythMusic),
and /mnt/media/photos directories mounted as NFS.

It's been a while since I set this all up, but I think I made the
recordings directory its own partition, which is not NFS since it's
not necessary.

The BE will put the recordings wherever you ask it to, but it must be
a single directory. If your TB of storage is on the BE, there's no
need for NFS. If your storage is on another machine, you can use NFS
to have the backend write recordings to a remote volume. But if that
TB of storage is split across different machines, I don't know of any
way to use multiple volumes at the same time to store and playback.

The only other real advantage I could see to making recordings an NFS
is that you could take the recording out of Myth, edit it or transcode
or whatever on a different machine, and then put it into MythVideo.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Good luck