[mythtv-users] Media Server Advice Required

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Dec 30, 2008, at 10:33 AM, --[ UxBoD ]-- wrote:

> Hi,

<snip backstory>

> Now comes the question, what sort of media machine would we require  
> by the TV ? We do not have HD at the moment, but a decent 40" plasma  
> so what would we require in respect of a TV/graphics card ? We have  
> a existing Denon DVD/Home Cinema setup so I presume we could use  
> that for sound ?  Digital TV is handled by Virgin Media.

There are way too many choices to get into. Most people start with  
what they have laying around as extra parts. Everyone has their own  
opinion as to what the "best" is. As you can imagine, this question  
gets asked over and over and over again. As such, there is lots of  
information on the wiki about it: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Hardware

The only thing I would say to definitely get is an nvidia card that  
has a GPU that supports VDPAU. This way when the next version of  
MythTV is released you will be prepared to offload most of the  
playback processing to your video card and your CPU will sit nearly  
idle (5%-10%) even when using high definition. http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/VDPAU

No, I don't know when the next version will be released (no one does),  
but it is inevitable. :)

> With respect to streaming we are only half wired, so I guess  
> wireless is out of the question, but home about these ethernet over  
> mains devices ?

They are unpredictable at best. I've had good luck with 802.11g and a  
single SD stream. A solid 802.11n connection and HD also works just  
fine for me but of course I would always recommend gigabit if at all  
possible. It's worth the initial pain of getting it installed instead  
of the hours of fighting with wireless signals and such.

-Brad