[mythtv-users] DisplaySize = Full ?

[tortise]

 >There isn't much value in spending hours putting together a map of 
what I have. It'll get posted and forgotten since it'll only be used to 
explain something now and then.

I'm not convinced, you might be surprised when more minds are focussed 
on the real problem(s)  The last few posts seem to be a case in point, 
some detail of what you are on about has given you much better 
responses.  The thing is that many of us actually have similar needs and 
objectives.

It seems you may not be aware of 
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Main_Page and http://linuxmce.org/

 >>   Assuming you have a RF modulator I would recommend a mythtv FE 
that just
 >>   feeds the modulator direct, ie presumably composite out of the 
myth box
 >>   direct into the modulator (No VGA converter = significant loss of
 >>   quality step) and on to your SD tv's.
 >
 > Actually, I'm using a good high end scan converter and the output is 
much better than putting composite into SD modulators.
 > It's how I've set up myth in building it and works very nicely.

SD is at the end of the day still only SD and the composite SD out of 
Mythtv is very good. How do you make that SD better?
I doubt that it is "much better", however I accept that it might be as 
good as.


 > 3. Lots of TVs
 > You mentioned before that you would like one frontend machine to drive
 > all of your TVs. You ran into problems when trying to deal with multiple
 > resolutions. I propose a hybrid solution. One dedicated frontend machine
 > for your HDTV in your home theater room (or living room). And another
 > frontend machine with the video and audio output split to all the other
 > SDTV's.

Looks like two people who have some understanding of what you are 
looking to do have now recommended this to you.

 > You can use RF remote control(s) instead of infrared to control
 > the frontend from anywhere in the house.

I agree, and note the holy grail has not yet arrived.

On 6/11/2010 8:23 a.m., mike at grounded.net wrote:

> You and a couple others have the full picture of what I'm trying to achieve. The only part is that again, I do know that myth isn't my end result but yes, I want myth on some of those video feeds in order to gain PVR functions.
As above.  Some of us have to guess on the morsels of clues given us.

> Actually, I have most of my cameras on a dedicated security PVR. However, I would love to try the zoneminder project because it gets me away from proprietary hardware which is my main objective here.

I'd like to see you report back how you get on with it too!  Using IP 
cameras seems to introduce a lot of flexibility (and network traffic)

Can anyone recommend economic quality HD IP surveillance cameras?

>>   You mentioned before that you would like one frontend machine to drive
>>   all of your TVs.  You ran into problems when trying to deal with
>>   multiple resolutions.
>
> The problem were related to the cards I was trying to use if I recall. Changing out to the GT220 I think it's called would give me HDMI but I just used a scan converter on the VGA port to get SD out of it.

What I was interested in was having SD resolution on VGA and HD 
resolution on teh HDMI port.

This can be done, I've done it, all be it using a different pair of 
outputs (composite and DVI) I see no reason that this cannot be done, 
except the inherent conflicts that occur resulting from different HD and 
SD screen ratios.  You say that's not a problem for you (I don't believe 
you will maintain that view) so I am not sure what the problem is then 
as this can be done, and with only one remote.

>>   frontend machine for your HDTV in your home theater room (or living
>>   room).  And another frontend machine with the video and audio output
>>   split to all the other SDTV's.
>
> I think the idea of using FE on each TV works fine. In fact, we have a PC in most rooms that have SD TV's so maybe even a card in each PC or a USB device that could output it's stream from the BE?

For what you describe you can have one SD FE to do all your tv's if you 
nobble its remote control issues.  That would be cheaper and possibly 
quieter.  You choose.

> I'm not sure I need a separate machine for HD though? We don't need all of the outputs on at the same time, switching is fine. So long as the connections are on the myth box, I would prefer connecting to the outputs and just switching between them.

Depends where you are prepared to trade off.

> My only question which I'm still not clear on is making sure I've got the various resolutions switchable on the HDMI port, which was once of my questions, in this thread I believe?
> Being able to switch the HDMI port to different resolutions is important in case we need to switch to a better mode depending on what ever we're watching on the HD projector. For example, if we want to watch SD, I want to switch down to SD.

I think you are anticipating a problem that does not exist, 
mythtv/NVIDIA already upscales SD fine when set to HD.  Have you tried 
it?  What's the problem?  What do you want to switch - and why?

> The bottom line for me is that I've got way too many remotes in every room, way too much hardware, way too much complexity and I'm trying to figure out how to consolidate this stuff, including all the way down to one remote some day :).

Common problem.  To me technology is converging into one mobile device 
(phone) per person that will do all, so that is where I am looking to 
end up.