[mythtv-users] mythTV + USB MPEG Tuner + NSLU2 ?

Marc Randolph mrand at pobox.com
Wed Nov 12 15:14:15 UTC 2008


On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 7:57 AM, Andrew Leung <andrew at ualberta.net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> MythTV is great. I really appreciate all the work everyone has put into it.
> It's definitely made my life easier.
>
> I am wondering what experiences people have had with mythTV, external USB
> MPEG tuners (i.e. a plextor convertx PXTV402), and a LinkSys NSLU2? Is it
> possible to just run the backend with a USB tuner on something low powered
> like a NSLU2? (I don't need the mythtv front end working. I am utilizing
> mythtv's web interface to record shows and I am downloading the shows to
> view on a different computer. )

Howdy Andrew,

Do you need transcoding?  Commercial flagging?  Do you do much
scheduling?  Run Mythfilldatabase?  Host mythweb? Server media over
NFS OR Samba to watch your show while doing any of the above?

While I love the idea of an ultra-low power backend (and frontend as
well), it's typically all the OTHER stuff besides capturing the stream
that takes up CPU cycles on a backend.  Not that you couldn't offload
some or all of it to a different machine, but if it takes a second
box, what's the point?

> My mythTV setup now is using a small intel-based shuttle running Mythdora +
> the Plextor Convertx. Since the Convertx outputs MPEG-4 SP, the system
> almost has no load... So I am toying with the idea of replacing the shuttle
> with a lower powered system... maybe even just a NSLU2 running debian. What
> is the lowest power setup you have run mythtv using an external encoder?

As long as the processor, bus, and peripherals could keep up with the
sustained transfer rate of your stream, I don't see why not.  And of
course, if it has enough RAM for all the functions (transcode,
commflag, etc all) you want it to do.

   Marc


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