[mythtv-users] Hardware configuration and capabilities of MythTV

[Rob Smith]

On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 2:02 PM, Reynolds, Brian
<Brian.Reynolds at fiserv.com> wrote:
> My question is this... are there any tuner cards available that are
> compatible with MythTV and have the ability to receive the encrypted
> channels?  It’s OK if I have to pay the cable company to rent a Cable Card
> or something similar.  I’m not looking to steal cable (of course, I’m open
> to suggestions J ).  Hopefully these tuner cards could also receive the
> premium channels (like Showtime) and interactive content (dubbed “iControl”
> by Time Warner/Brighthouse).

Look into the Happauge HDPVR. It's the only option that will allow you
to get all your channels in HD. You'll need a cable box per HDPVR, but
it works great.

> It would be desirable if the MythTV server
> would be “smart” enough to select the ATSC tuners when a channel can be
> received without the use of the tuners that have a cable CARD, and use the
> ones with the cable CARD only when necessary.

Yes, myth understands how to do this.

> How much horsepower does a backend server need in order to handle 4 to 8
> tuners?

Typically very little. It's mostly IO.  Commercial flagging and other
jobs will be the ones that use the CPU on the backend, and playback on
the frontend requires CPU or a supported format that a GPU can handle.

> I would want one backend server and five frontend machines.  Will this work
> over a 100Mbps wired network, or will I need to upgrade to 1Gbps (or perhaps
> just 1Gbps from the backend server to a switch... and then 100Mbps to each
> frontend machine)?

1Gbps for the MBE should be fine. your HD streams max out at under 20
mbps and so streaming 5 of them + overhead is a bit much for a 100
mbps.


> How much horsepower does a frontend server need, if the backend server is on
> a separate piece of hardware?

Depends. If you're using a nvidia card with VDPAU and supported
content, not a lot, but it's best to plan ahead for being able to have
the CPU handle the content without the GPU. a core2duo in the 2ghz
range should be fine.

~Rob