[mythtv-users] New house - any advice?

[Stroller]

On 17 Jan 2007, at 03:10, robin wrote:

> Thanks for all the comments. You are all a great help!
>
> Is this possible: Have a frontend box with two or more sound cards,  
> with
> each sound card hooked to a multi-source/multi-zone amp, so that  
> you could,
> say, watch livetv using one audio channel and use mythmusic to play  
> a cd on
> another audio channel sent to another room? This would require  
> multiple
> instances of myth started on the box, each using a different sound  
> card.
> ...
> I want to reduce the number of frontends required but also be able  
> to feed
> the audio out of mythmusic/mythfm around the house. This is the  
> only way I
> could think of doing it.
>
> Maybe I'm overcomplicating things and should just install frontends  
> wherever
> I have speakers installed, but I think a single multi-zone amp  
> would be
> cheaper than installing a computer/monitor/amp in each room.

For me it would be quite undesirable to have speakers in a different  
room from the FE - this would prevent one from changing radio  
stations or skipping a channel with the remote. However I can see  
that having a full FE computer & a TV or monitor in each room would  
also be undesirable.

I'd look at devices like the Sqeezebox <http://www.slimdevices.com/ 
pi_squeezebox.html> for music use; this looks quite expensive to me,  
but I see that older models can be picked up on eBay for (here in the  
UK, at least) about 1/3 the RRP of the current models. I'd also  
imagine that other brands offer similar solutions - it looks like  
Netgear's MP101 has a little support from the Linux community, for  
instance. The Squeezebox connects to a "Squeezeserver" which would  
run on your backend, but the manufacturers offer this for Linux and  
this would seem to me to be less hassle than setting up front-ends  
all over the place (I'm sorry, but there's no way on this planet you  
could convince me to cable speakers from one room to the other, when  
a lightweight FE could be used).

Stroller.