[mythtv-users] remote mythtv backend

[Simon Hobson]

jacek burghardt <jaceksburghardt at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am thinking about setting up remote myth backended overseas.
> Is this plausable to watch live tv that way 5000 milles away ? 
> What small device could work as backend 

I've been considering something similar - but only across town (in practice, out to the ISP and back).

Haven't actually done it, probably move the backend before I get that far ! I see a couple of issues :
1) You need a secure channel between the sites, one that will carry UDP and TCP - an SSH tunnel doesn't work, I've tried it. If you have static IPs at both ends then you could probably manage with port forwarding (and firewall rules for security), otherwise you'll need a VPN of some sort. What you don't want to do is expose your backend to everyone - even if there are no miscreants attacking it, a web crawler trying all the "Delete" links on your recorded programs page will get rid of all your recordings for you (yes, we've heard of that one on here) !
2) You need "adequate" bandwidth. For UK Freeview broadcasts I reckon that means a minimum of about 2Mbps - in practice you need a fair bit more or you'll struggle with buffer underruns on playback.

Dunno how latency and jitter affects things - whether there is enough buffering or whether it will increase either automatically or by config to work round it.

What I have been doing for the last few months is transcoding stuff to H264 (because I already had a job set up) and copying those files to my laptop (Mac OS 10.8). Just copying the raw files (MPEG-2 for Freeview SD channels) works, but none of the programs I've tried (including VLC Player) will allow me to select only one audio channel so I get the audio description. The raw files are also larger which may be an issue depending on what internet package you have at each end.