[mythtv-users] Building a second frontend for an old TV

[Taco Mel]

My wife really likes MythTV on our family room set so
I have been asked if to set it up for the TV in the
bedroom also.  It's a several year old 19 inch tube
with composite video and RCA audio inputs and is not
HD capable.

I already have a dedicated backend server (dual 1.8
GHz Xeon, pcHDTV 5500, Hauppauge 500) and a frontend
server in the family room.  I will need to add a
frontend for the bedroom.

My requirements:

1. The bedroom PC will be an old computer I already
own using a recently purchased, cheap Nvidia PCI card
with composite out.  The system will be one of:

(a) 2.4GHz Pentium, 1 GB RAM, ~4 years old
(b) 933MHz Pentium, 512 MB RAM, ~6 years old
(c) 600MHz Pentium, 256 MB RAM, ~8 years old

2. I need to be able to watch standard definition
"Live TV" and the on screen guide.

3. I need to be able to play back recordings which may
be either in standard definition (from the Hauppauge)
or high definition (from the pcHDTV).  Including
"chase play" of shows being recorded already.

So how do I set this up, specifically for the
requirement to watch HDTV recordings?  Can I
down-convert the stream from the backend to SDTV only
for this TV?  Do I need to transcode HDTV recordings
to SDTV to be able to watch them on this set (and if
so can I still keep the HDTV copies for the other
set)?  Or will my hardware handle HDTV just fine so
long as I configure <something> in <some way>?

I just want to know what I am up against before I
start investing a lot of time in it.  Thanks in advance.


       
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