[mythtv-users] Adding a new frontend to an old mythtv system
Andrew
andrew_mythtv at 16paws.com
Tue Apr 25 00:12:46 UTC 2017
I have a suspicion that I know how this is going to go from the google
searches that I've made, but I'm going to ask anyway because I find the
expected answer hard to believe.
I have a MythTV system that has been running for 6 or 7 years. It
consists of an x86 Debian backend server, with three HDHomeRuns, and a
9TB RAID5 fileserver, and one fanless SFF x86 Debian frontend tied to a
big plasma. The frontend tells me that it is release 0.23.1, so I
assume the backend is the same vintage. I happily use this as my ONLY
HDTV viewing method, and have done so since 2010. It works great.
I am trying to add a new frontend box to the system, so I dutifully
downloaded all the source (0.28), compiled (it took much longer than 30
minutes, thank you very much) and ran through the wickets to install
it. Of course, it refuses to work with the old back end because, well,
actually I can't think of a good "why".
So that was a waste of time. How does one get a new frontend
forward/backward compatible with an older backend. Please don't lecture
me on the semantics of what is forward and what is backward because it
is pointless and both apply depending if one is viewing the problem from
the frontend or backend - I see that is the standard non-answer from the
google searches I have made.
My constraints: no, I'm not deleting 9 TB of stored programs, nor am I
interested in risking losing the database for over 1200 recorded
programs. No, I'm not interested in a solution that requires an entire
system upgrade of every component simply to add a new one later. In
particular when any Linux upgrade means that you're likely to lose
hardware graphics support because, well, fuck you, that's why. Years of
experience have taught me to never upgrade anything in a working Linux
system because the result is a trail of tears until eventually the
hardware is thrown out. Not every Linux user is a college kid with a
low end laptop, leaching free wifi at a coffee shop, with the attention
span of a goldfish.
How does the rest of the world work as expected when new frontend
devices, let's call them "TV's", continue to be introduced supporting
new features (NTSC, ATSC, QAM, IPTV, RS170, S Video, component, VGA RGB,
HDMI) and yet they still work with older program sources? It seems like
an inherently reasonable model.
My skills: 35 years software developer, three electrical and computer
engineering degrees from a first tier engineering school, have
used/developed on BSD Unix for 35 years and Linux for 10, and a dozen
years writing drivers and firmware in the Silicon Valley. So I'm not a
noob, and yes I checked the FAQ, it was useless for me.
How how can I add an new frontend to my current MythTV system?
Thanks,
Andrew
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