[mythtv-users] New user seeking system design advice

Aleksandr Milewski n6mod at milewski.org
Wed Jan 10 05:37:36 UTC 2007


I'd like to put together a MythTV system for placeshifting OTA HD, and
would like some advice on which bits go where.

I have a site where I can place a box with an ATSC card that has good
OTA reception. I'd like to be able to record here, and then play the
recordings at home, where there is no OTA DTV (at all!)

Both sites have DSL, so there's good connectivity, but not for
streaming. I control the firewalls at both locations.

So there are three boxes (I think) involved here. I have hardware in
mind for some of these, but some indication of how much horsepower is
required for each bit would be greatly appreciated.

Box A has the ATSC tuner and a bunch of disk, some of it removable.

My hope is that this machine doesn't require a lot of CPU since it's 
just shuffling bits over PCI. (I don't want any transcoding to happen here)

Box B will be hooked up to my TV over DVI. I'd like this to be small and 
quiet, which might mean it doesn't have a lot of disk. I'd prefer if 
this didn't need to be on all the time. Graphics card recommendations 
would be appreciated.

Box C is an extant server machine that is at home, has lots of disk, and
is always on. At the moment, this has a removable drive bay that matches
the one in Box A.

So, my understanding is that I want a backend on Box A, and a frontend
on Box B.

Some questions:

Do I need/want a backend on Box C?

Where should the database live?

Can I construct this system in such a way that I can schedule recordings
from the frontend, or is MythWeb a better bet?

Conversely, if the frontend on Box B knows about , can I configure
things such that Box B won't try to stream content from Box A?

Is MythArchive the right tool for moving content on removable drives?

Any wisdom in setting up a system to do this placeshifting would be
greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
	Zandr


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