[mythtv-users] large mythtv deployment
Mike Perkins
mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk
Sat Nov 15 17:10:05 UTC 2008
Michael Johnson wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 10:29 AM, Mike Perkins <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk
>> wrote:
>
>> Michael Johnson wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I am doing a fairly large deployment of mythtv at work and I am looking
>> for
>>> any pointers that may help us out. So far we have the following hardware
>> for
>>> a mythtv cluster and we are now debating over the hd5500 or the WinTV-HD
>>> capture cards. We want 8x backends and 8x frontends.
>>>
>>> Hardware:
>>> 1 x Quad core 2.8Ghz / 4G ram / 500G disk
>>> 2 x Quad core 2.4Ghz / 4G ram / 500G disk
>>> 2 x Dual core 2.4Ghz / 4G ram / 500G disk
>>> 8 x 3Ghz / 4Gram / 120G
>>> 1 x appletv frontend
>>> 1 x ps3 frontend
>>>
>>> Plan:
>>> Keep all the frontends and backends in a single room and run 3 ethernet
>>> cables from frontend to the display via HDMI over ethernet thus leaving 1
>>> ethernet cable free for IR and maybe something else.
>>>
>>> In Question:
>>> * What is the length limit on an IR reciever cable?
>>>
>> Why on earth do you want to have eight backends? Are you setting these up
>> to be
>> completely independant of each other? It's not necessary, and you will be
>> duplicating files and effort.
>>
>> --
> We have 8 satellite feeds. So we don't necessarily want 8 backends, however
> we want 8 capture cards hooked up (somehow) to the hardware we have below.
>
(Please don't top-post)
The back ends don't need vast amounts of power, if they are just dumping digital
data to the disks - which you will be, from satellites. Most motherboards these
days have two (ish) PCI slots, so going that route means four backends. Don't
know much about satellite cards, someone else will advise, but there may be dual
input cards available. I suppose one problem might be if you need a CI interface
to each input.
One backend will be the master, so it needs an extra disk to store the OS and
MySQL database on, this needn't be too big (mine is an old 8Gb disk).
The front ends could be small diskless boxes, or even booted off e.g. Compact
Flash. They are only going to contain an OS and the Myth code. That means they
can be placed next to the screen and you don't have to bother with HDMI over
ethernet - using proper ethernet instead to connect to the backend(s). If the
front ends are going to have independant selection of programs, you will need an
IR feed for each frontend, so you would need more than the one cable mentioned
above. If the frontend is by the screen, you have no need for a long cable.
--
Mike Perkins
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