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<font size=3>At 11:15 AM 1/14/2008, Kevin Kuphal wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">On Jan 14, 2008 1:07 PM, MythTV
<<a href="mailto:mythtv@hermon.net">mythtv@hermon.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>Hi everyone!<br><br>
<dd>I am writing from the Hermon School Dept. and we are very interested
in<br>
<dd>the possibility of using MythTV in our district. <br><br>
<dd>I've been through the documentation, but I have a few
questions.<br><br>
<dd>In our case, we are not only looking for a simple DVR, but a
network<br>
<dd>distribution utility.<br><br>
<dd>Our goal is to have a way for teachers to access recordings in their
<br>
<dd>classroom through a "frontend" device, that would in turn
connect to a<br>
<dd>central server with the video storage. It sounds like MythTV would
support<br>
<dd>this. Also, teachers would need to be able to access cable and
Satellite <br>
<dd>through the frontend.<br><br>
<dd>I do realize that a cheap server wouldn't work for this environment,
and<br>
<dd>would be willing to purchase a high-end server to handle the capacity
of<br>
<dd>the High School. (There would be a server in each building).
<br><br>
<dd>My question is, how many frontend devices can a MythTV server
support<br>
<dd>concurrently? At the high school, there would be about 45 classrooms
with<br>
<dd>front end units. (Realistically, they all wouldn't be using them at
the <br>
<dd>same time.)<br>
</dl><br>
You are limited only by your network bandwidth and I/O requirements for
the number of simultanoues clients you wish to have. Myth itself
places no limits on this.<br>
<br>
<dl>
<dd>What would you say the specs of a server would need to be to support
at<br>
<dd>least 10 frontends at the same time? The front end devices and the
server <br>
<dd>would be on their own segment of a 1-Gig backbone network so
bandwidth<br>
<dd>shouldn't be an issue.<br><br>
<dd>We do understand that only one teacher would be able to change the
channel<br>
<dd>for live TV at a time (or satellite). What would happen if a second
user <br>
<dd>tried to change the channel when another person is already
controlling the<br>
<dd>source? Can multiple people at least see, but not control, cable
through<br>
<dd>the Front End utility?<br>
</dl><br>
I *believe* that only one user can enter "LiveTV" with only one
tuner. Other users attempting will be given the option to view the
in-progress recording of the program but if the user that initiated the
LiveTV session first changes programs/channels then their program will
end prematurely when that occured. <br>
<br>
<dl>
<dd>Last, but not least, I see that MythTv supports adding multiple
recording<br>
<dd>servers. Can we add a second recording server (or server with
different <br>
<dd>sources) and integrate it with the overall program guide that the
frontend<br>
<dd>use, or would the frontend machines have to be changed to point to
a<br>
<dd>second server to see the programming available on it?<br><br>
</dl> <br>
Yes. The frontends would connect to the master backed and receive
programming and DVR functionality from all the backends.<br>
<dl><br>
<dd>I ask because we also have DVD players we want to add as a source
(a<br>
<dd>single channel in the program guide) and to be available to staff.
(We <br>
<dd>realize that remote control of the DVD players isn't possible this
way.)<br>
</dl><br>
As a suggestion, you would be better off providing ISO copies or DVD-rips
of the materials stored on the server and using MythVideo to present them
in a gallery format rather than attempting to manipulate a DVD player on
an s-video input. </blockquote><br>
As a school district, which is accountable to the public, you would have
to be careful about showing a ripped DVD simultaneously to different
audiences. Under the terms of the single DVD license, you are only able
to duplicate usage as if you would have one physical DVD. Once you rip a
DVD to an ISO file, myth gives you the capability to have multiple
viewers each view the DVD content, all playing at different parts of the
movie, at the same time. This would be a fundamental breach of DVD
license terms and could get you into trouble. I would talk to the school
district counsel for more detail about this and other similar aspects of
using myth. <br><br>
-- Mache Creeger<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<dl>
<dd><font size=3>Thank for you any assistance you can provide! We are
planning on getting a<br>
<dd>Monolith box for the Video Server. <br><br>
</dl> <br>
Kevin<br>
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