[mythtv-users] Myth Front End hardware. DNLA, boxes, PCs, etc.

Andrew Stadt acstadt at stadt.ca
Sat Jul 30 12:36:39 UTC 2011


On 29/07/2011 8:50 PM, Linuxguy123 wrote:
> I'm setting up Myth system for a house we just moved into.
>
> 2 or 3 satellite receivers, Hauppauge HD-PVRs on each one, maybe a
> Netflix source as well.
>
> We want about 5 TVs in the house.  2 of them are Samsung DLNA equipped.
> We'll be using tablets to control other aspects of the house, ie sound,
> etc.
>
> The HD-PVRs record in H.264.  How much processing power does it take to
> decode that (HD) stream and send it to a display ?
>
> I'd like to standardize on a simple and economical Myth FE.  I'd rather
> not build stand alone PC FEs, but if that is what it takes to really
> unlock the power of Myth, then I'll do it.
>
> Ideas ?
>
> Do any of the stand alone (Asus, Western Digital and other) "media
> players" work well as a Myth FE ?
>
> How about the game boxes ?
>
> Does it really take a PC FE to get everything out Myth ?
>
> Thanks !
>
> LG
>
This is one subject that seems to get a fair amount of coverage on this 
list, with lots of varying opinions.  Several people on this list have, 
in my opinion, a minimalist point of view - trying to do the most with 
the least amount of power consumption and others like to have power to 
burn.  I like to think I run the middle ground, but probably lean to the 
extra power side for comfort.

Given the HD-PVR's, I'm assuming you're in the north american market place.

My current system utilizes 2 HD-PVR's, and an older hauppauge 150. I'm 
in a rural environment, and can't reliably get any OTA channels so I'm 
limited to cable/satellite feeds.

For my setup I've gone with a fairly powerful dedicated backend (doesn't 
even share any server tasks - just mythtv) and for my primary frontend 
just using an Ion board - used to be netbooted, now boots of an SSD.  It 
does about 90% of what I need, and about 99% of the families - so far a 
very high WAF.

My other frontends run on varying levels of hardware, if fact just about 
every PC/laptop in my house has a frontend installed on it - not that 
they all get used all the time - but they're there if no one can decide 
to watch the same thing :-).

As for game systems: I was quite pleased to find that a couple PS3's I 
introduced to the system could access all the recordings on the backend 
right out of the box - unfortunately the PS3's can't handle the AC3 
audio from the HD-PVR's.  Apparently If I just recorded the audio in the 
stereo if would work, but I haven't really looked into this yet.

Just my $0.02.  - not sure what that is currently worth with the 
exchange rate.

Andrew.



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