[mythtv-users] restricting mythpreviewgen?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 01/22/2013 12:07 PM, Alex Williamson wrote:
> For mythtv, I want an integrated environment that I
> can deploy easily on frontend and backend, so I use mythbuntu.  I
> certainly don't want to reboot my main server every time mythtv does
> something weird and needs a reboot and I don't want to have a
> dedicated, power hungry master backend.  I've been attempting to avoid
> a dedicated slave, but the frustration and overall performance impact
> is justifying the meager power consumption of a t5500 thin client
> (5.5W) acting as an intermediary.  I'd consider something like a
> raspberry pi for this job too, but I had the t5500 on hand and don't
> need to worry about arm support.  Thanks,

And a "power hungry" 25W at idle Core i system with plenty of headroom 
would cost about $25 per year, compared to your $5.50/year (for slave 
backend--assuming that 5.5W is actually what's being drawn by the whole 
system plus power supply/transformer).  Oh, of course, there's also the 
cost--paid out of your time--of working around the limitations of a 
system that's the wrong tool for the job...

IMHO, the difference between a 5.5W system and a 25W system is not 
$20/yr in electricity cost, but is simply the difference between a 
system that's completely wrong for running MythTV and one that's exactly 
what MythTV expects.

And, if you just make that 25W-idle Core i system a combined 
frontend/master backend system (which may raise idle power usage about 
7W if you add a discrete nvidia video card), you may well be using less 
power than VM-processing-load+5.5W remote backend+frontend system.

Mike