[mythtv-users] New install - Backend, multiple frontends - reccomendations

[list at onnow.net]

A quad Xeon has alot of processing power. Plenty I would say.
Worth a try for horsepower for sure. I am sure it would be rare to  
have 6 streams at once.


Quoting Ivan Kowalenko <ivan.kowalenko at gmail.com>:

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> On Aug 25, 2006, at 10.12, Jim Moseby wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm new to the group, and to MythTV.  I am excited about the
>> possibilities,
>> but have some basic questions.
>>
>> I am in the process of building a house, and I am almost at the
>> point where
>> I am installing media and network systems.  My plan is to install a
>> single
>> backend server with, say, 6 TV cards in it, and put little diskless/
>> fanless
>> frontend boxes at each TV location (4 bedrooms, Family room,
>> kitchen, and
>> office).
>
> Wow. That sounds like quite a load for one box. Can you imagine
> commercial flagging several recordings simultaneously? And I'm not
> sure how lucky you're going to be, finding a box with six PCI slots.
> That is, unless, you're going SD, in which case you might not be so
> bad off with three PVR-500s (but that's still quite a load)
>
>> Having never done this, or even seen MythTV in action, I have a TON of
>> questions.  I have read the documentation, and still several
>> questions have
>> arisen.
>
> My advice: start small. Try a single box set-up, then move on to
> adding front-ends.
>
>> First, hardware for the backend.  My plan is to use cards that do
>> hardware
>> encoding, because the docs say that will relieve the CPU from a large
>> portion of the work.  I have access to a Compaq quad zeon 1Ghz
>> server with a
>> terabyte of SCSI RAID storage in pluggable drives that I hope to
>> use.  I
>> would like this to serve as a single backend system, running the
>> database,
>> storage and HDTV cards.  Sufficient?  Would you split out the
>> backend duties
>> to multiple servers? (Recommendations as to which HDTV cards are
>> most stable
>> and supported would be great.)
>
> I'd farm out with multiple back-ends. I use a single Celeron 600 with
> a single SD capture, and even then, sometimes I'll have a show before
> it's been commflag'd. Plus there's the sheer number PCI slots you're
> going to need. A Quad 1 GHz Xeon might do a good job, though. I don't
> have enough experience to speak on that as far as processing power goes.
>
>> I'm thinking the hardware for frontend systems will be based around
>> the tiny
>> VIA EPIA motherboard.  With those, I can build little netboot
>> systems with
>> no moving parts.  There will be 7 of those total.  Sufficient?
>
> I've heard good things about those, but it depends on which mobo you
> go with, to make sure you get enough oomph to do HD. Plus, you'll
> have to set up the UniChrome Pro stuff to get XvMC to work.
>
>> The network to support it all will be Gigabit at the backend, and
>> 100M to
>> the frontends, switched with a Dell PowerConnect 2124 switch.  I
>> could find
>> no documentation about the network requirements for a backend/frontend
>> setup.  Will this be sufficient?
>
> I tried streaming SD over a 10M line. It wasn't pleasant. If you can
> go 10G for the back-end, I'd (personally) feel a bit safer. But, then
> again, I've never dealt with HD.
>
>> My hope is that we can have all 7 stations either watching live TV,
>> playing
>> MAME games, listening to music or whatever simultaneously with no
>> degradation of performance or quality.  Any input from the group
>> towards
>> this end will be much appreciated.
>
> Good luck with this.
>
>> I do plan to document this entire project and publish the results.
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