[mythtv-users] Output to h.264

[mike at grounded.net]

> Your blade servers, at 850MHz each, would be okay for MythTV backends,
> as long as the capture of video isn't CPU-intensive.  Your DVB-S2 card

That's what I was hoping to hear :).
 
> Hauppauge PVR-150 or HVR-1600.  You *could* then configure MythTV to
> treat these as video sources, available in the electronic program guide
> as another channel.

Perfect, that is exactly what I am interested in.
Correct on the cameras, they aren't IP and connect to modulators via composite.
I see lots of mpeg4 cards out there with 4, 8 even 16 inputs. If I can get a half decent signal from one of those and use it with mythtv, then that takes care of multiple inputs on one blade.
 
> But a better approach is to setup ZoneMinder for your cameras, which is
> a separate product from MythTV.  It uses motion detection, and records
> video clips to disk whenever it sees motion.  You can also monitor the
> live feed if desired.  MythTV has support for integration with
> ZoneMinder. It would appear as a different menu item in the MythTV
> frontend, separate from the live TV or recordings menus.  From a MythTV
> frontend, you could view recorded motion detection events, or view the
> live camera feed.

That sounds interesting. Currently, I do use an mpeg4 device which does just that. The cameras connect into one of the inputs on that device and I output the device on it's own channel on the coax. Each camera has a splitter on it, one goes to this box which records based on motion and the other goes to a modulator. I'd love to simplify that whole mess. 
 
> To get the full functionality of MythTV, you *need* to install a MythTV
> frontend on a device at each TV.  UPnP is okay for browsing video files
> for playback, but you don't get anywhere near the full power of a MythTV
> system.  I think you will probably need to accept the fact that a MythTV
> STB is going to cost more than those $30 ebay items you listed.  A good
> MythTV STB is an Acer Aspire Revo, at around $200 each.

 That's fine when I get to that point. Just hard to justify spending initially when I have so much hardware around. I recently became interested in FTA which in turn is what also lead me here. My problem, like many, is that when I get into something new, I tend to go overboard buying things. I'm trying to use what I have first, then open the tap a little once I better understand it.