[mythtv-users] remote display from frontend

[Jan Ceuleers]

On 07/10/15 22:26, Ross Boylan wrote:
> I have been running mythfrontend where X is set to display on a
> different machine.  This seems to work OK for viewing the schedule and
> settings, but shows only a black screen if I try to watch TV.
> 
> Is there a way to make this work?

Ross,

Let me start by saying that you really don't want to do that. Such a
setup, if you could get it to work, would involve sending the decoded
video over the network, and the bandwidth needed to do that would be
enormous.

The other problem is how to get the audio transmitted over the network
as well. I'm sure this is possible but I have no experience with it and
I suspect that there will be problems getting it to be properly
synchronised with video (if transmitting decoded video is even possible
as per the previous paragraph).

If you've got a machine sitting next to your TV anyway, then just
install a frontend on it and you're done.

> I realize the preferred solution is to run the frontend on the machine
> with the display, but in this case I can't without upgrading the whole
> system.
> 
> In reality everything is on the same hardware; myth, however, is running
> inside a VM.  I suppose if I were adventurous I could install X in the
> VM and attempt to view the VM display "directly" via VirtualBox (the
> virtualization software).  I suspect that wouldn't work well.

Not sure I understand. Are you saying that the machine that's sitting
next to your TV is also the machine that's running myth, but you're
fighting virtualisation issues? If so I can't help with that.

Something else you could look at, if your problem is to transmit a
video/audio signal over longer distances, is VGA/audio or HDMI
extenders, which transmit these signals (possibly with some quality
loss) over cat 6 cables. I've only ever used something like that for the
purpose of providing keyboard/video/mouse console access some distance
away from a server that was buried in a closet.

HTH, Jan