[mythtv-users] ECS LIVA as Backend / Frontend Combo: It Works!

[Dave MythTV]

Hey everyone.

There are several (three?) threads going now about using the ECS LIVA as a
MythTV frontend...  but I'm going to take it a different direction.   :-)
I'm here to say that the LIVA also works quite well as a *BACKEND*, and
amazingly - as a backend / frontend combo as well !!


I'm running Gentoo, so I've been tacking my findings on to SiliconFiend's
ECS LIVA How-To thread on the Gentoo forums as I go along:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7675300.html


Short list of my system hardware configuration:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
ECS LIVA  (BAT-MINI v1.0)
$109 model with 32GB eMMC / 2GB RAM   (NO reason to spend more on the 64GB
models)
3x older USB ATSC digital tuners with multirec enabled
1.5 TB USB 3.0 2.5" portable (bus powered) hard drive
USB MCE-style IR receiver
USB RF wireless keyboard/trackpad combo
WiFi on the LIVA (no hardwired ethernet)
Audio via the analog output
1080P display connected via HDMI
USB slim DVD drive
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Special hardware note:  I'm using a LIVA from the SECOND (or later)
production run of the FIRST generation of the LIVA.  The first/first had a
dual-core N2806 CPU, while the second run, after a few hundred were
produced, changed to the dual-core N2807 CPU.  This is also *not* the
second-generation "ECS LIVA X", which is supposed to launch in a week or so
at CES 2015, with rumors pointing to a quad-core N2940 CPU for that model.



Software configuration:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gentoo (stage 3 install, 'native' architecture, everything built from
source with no binary packages used)
Linux kernel 3.17.7-gentoo, manually configured to be absolutely as minimal
as possible.
Pure 64-bit configuration (no multilib, no 32-bit emulation)
Root partition on eMMC formatted as ext4, Data partition on spinning disk
formatted as JFS.
media-tv/mythtv-0.27.4_p20141018  (~amd64 masked)
x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel-2.99.917  (~amd64 masked)
x11-libs/libva-1.4.1  (~amd64 masked)
x11-libs/libva-intel-driver-1.4.1  (~amd64 masked)
OpenGL painter, vaapi playback profile in MythTV frontend
4GB swap space on the USB hard drive ONLY (My system rarely uses it, and I
have it on the spinny disk to avoid premature wear & tear on the eMMC.)
Entire software install uses < 5GB of space on the eMMC, climbing to maybe
9GB with all of the backup copies of the package sources.  (That's why the
64GB model is unnecessary)
Import of database from previous backend, with ~4 years of daily use
recording history
Import of ~1.4 TB of previous recordings
-----------------------------------------------------------------



I've found that running a current kernel and current Intel graphics drivers
are absolutely crucial to the performance and stability.   The system as
configured doesn't even flinch with HD Live TV... and does just fine
watching live TV with a second background recording as well.   If I spool
up all three tuners recording three shows from separate stations (on
separate multiplexes), I get some minor glitching in the playback if I'm
watching a fourth recording at the same time.   Under normal use, the
frontend remains very responsive, skipping around in recordings is nearly
immediate, etc - you would never guess from using it that it was such a low
spec machine.   My wife is watching a previously recorded 1080i New Years
special right now, with two more recording in the background, and the CPU
stats are 11% user 15% system, ***59% idle*** and 15% wait.


I was planning to order a second one of these to play around with, but I
genuinely don't need to!  It took a long time to get set up, but I'm pretty
darn impressed with how capable this thing is, especially at the price
point and with such astonishingly low power usage and purely passive
cooling.



Any questions, ask away and I'll do my best to answer.  But I wanted to get
the word out that the LIVA was in fact capable as a backend AND as a BE/FE
combo.   :-)

Special thanks to Karl (SiliconFiend) for the early setup/documentation
work for Gentoo, and to all of the MythTV devs that made this possible!

- Dave
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20141231/281c09ea/attachment.html>