[mythtv-users] Proof of Concept a success!

Steven Adeff adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com
Mon Apr 16 13:33:55 UTC 2007


On 4/16/07, David Frascone <dave at frascone.com> wrote:
> So, this weekend I installed Ubuntu 6.10 on a spare box (P4-2.4Ghz, 1mb
> Ram, 100Gb disk), and installed mythtv.  I found an old Geforce 4 card,
> patched the kernel to make it work (card has wrong pci-id -- long
> story), installed the nvidia drivers, and got things working.
>
> I tried Firewire to my STB (Dual Tuner Motorola Thingie), and it worked
> -- *all* channels.  Even premium highdef.

congrats, consider yourself lucky!

> I eventually even managed to configure the music archive to see my
> tunes, and mythvideo to see my movies -- all good.
>
> Highdef was taxing on the system -- there was some stuttering.  Also,
> the firewire seemed flaky at times.  Sometimes I would have to press
> watch TV a couple of times to get things to work.  But -- overall --
> twas awesome!

you'll find the general advice here is buy a fast enough CPU and avoid
XvMC when building a new frontend.

> Given what I've now learned, I've modified my next approach.  My
> first-cut system will have a backend.  I have two spare computers with
> around 100Gb each.  (I think one has 80Gb).  So, I'm going to combine
> both drives into one system and make it a dedicated back-end.  This
> leaves some backend questions:
>
> 1) mythtv-setup seems like a FE program -- is there a lighter weight
> version for dedicated backends?

mythtv-setup needs to be run on every machine that will operate as a
backend, you only need to run it to configure that backend. Some
things really only need to be used for the master backend, like your
guide sources. Other parts are for the tuners and settings on that
specific backend.

> 2) Firewire is a bit flaky when it comes to getting a channel tuned.
>    a) I bought a new 10' cable -- too long?  It was rated to 400mbit
>    b) Configuration:  What speed should I choose?
>    c) I'm choosing a DCT Set Top Box in the configuration -- but my
> number is different.  Does it matter?

- 10' isn't necessarily too long, but why have all that extra cable if
you only need, say 1'?
- technically 100 is fast enough, though I just choose 400, I don't
know if this makes any real difference though.
- the dual tuner DVR boxes (64xx series) seem to be not as stable as
the single tuner boxes (62xx series).
- there has been a lot of work in SVN for firewire, and while your
setup isn't ready for primetime, you may want to play around with this
as it should firm up your firewire recordings.

> 3) Soon I'll be receiving my dual tuner card, and a STB dedicated to my
> myth setup.  Is there a way to have myth default to a tuner for most
> recordings, and only use the STB for digital channels?

You will want to create two DataDirect accounts at labs.zap2it.com,
one for your dual tuner card and one for your STB so that each can
have a different set of channels. Since your dual tuner will only have
the analog channels you can set that with higher recording priority
than the STB so that it will favor it over the STB. From here you
could still allow your STB to record the analog channels but it would
only be used when the dual tuner isn't in use (for the most part).
There are multiple priority systems Myth uses to determine what shows
and what tuner to use, combining them can give you some very fine
tuned control over what tuner can be used. There is also an option in
scheduling recordings to "favor" a certain tuner, which will tell the
scheduler to try and make it record on a specific tuner, I've found it
works really well.

> 4) This will be an initial setup, moving to a nicer rack mounted backend
> in the future -- is there an easy way to move recordings / setup when I
> do that?  Would it make it easier if I put the database on another
> machine (my normal file-server -- always up)?

I would suggest not worrying about the settings, as you'll find when
you go to setup the new backend you decide you want to do things a
little differently from what you've learned with your first setup,
plus it will be good to go through the process again when building the
new machine and it won't take you long.
As for the recordings, this is a simple enough task with lots of info
in this list, just go to gossamer and do some searching.


> And a couple of diskless frontend questions:
>
> 1) Geforce4 card
>    a) I'm using the VGA input to my TV -- is that my best choice?

depends on your TV and if it does 1:1 mapping through the VGA port.

>    b) My TV has a resolution of 1366x768, but currently I'm set at
> 1024x768 -- should I just find a compatible modeline?

yes, I recommend finding a 1366x768 modeline for the menu and use
480p, 720p and 1080i modelines to match your recorded content and let
the TV do its own scaling from there.

> 2) NFS -vs- initramfs -vs- whatever . . . PXE Boot?  I'd rather save my
> DVD to just play movies, and boot off of the network -- any HOWTO's?

lots of good information in both the Wiki and this mailing list,
again, Gossamer is your friend.

> And, finally -- does anyone sell any pre-built diskless mythtv
> frontends?  Might be cheaper / better than building my own.

not specifically I don't think, just general computers that can be
used for MythTV, and none that I know of are diskless. I don't think
any of them will be cheaper than building your own though.

-- 
Steve
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