Jeff,<br><br>I can't speak to all you listed, but I'm happily running with 5 tuners (2 PVR-500's and 1 PVR-250) on an ancient 2.8GHZ P4, with a 400mhz FSB, and 1GB of RD RAM. All 5 tuners could can record simultaneously to the 180GB LVM, which consists of a 120GB ATA 133 disk, and a 60gb ATA133 disk. The LVM is formated to XFS. I have 4 frontends, and they're all connected by 100mbit CAT6 (I got 200 ft of free CAT6 cable from my work when I set it all up originally).<br>
<br>Just last night, I put it through its paces fairly hard. I had it running such that I was watching a recording in my living room, and my wife was watching a show live 2 times (in the office and bedroom) and recording it as well, tying up 3 tuners. Since she doesn't really understand how this works, she was watching it 'live' in two different rooms, on two different frontends, and since it's a show she insists I record, it was being recorded on another tuner(if she just opened the recording and watched it that way, she could have watched it in both rooms and recorded it on 1 tuner). While this was going on, I was recording two other shows. Simultaneously, my machine was commercial flagging two of the recordings (because I limit it to two jobs). Also, during this, I just so happen to know that the CPU usage was about 80%, because I was logged into the machine via VNC, where the machine was also hosting my Bittorrents (I believe I had 2 torrents going at the time). <br>
<br>That sure seems like a lot, but it seemed to run smooth and if I hadn't logged on to do other things, I never would have known how much was going on from a user perspective. <br><br>So from my experience, you should be able to do your SD system with the hardware you have; and the HD part my require a storage upgrade, but the CPU will likely be taxed about the same. I would try using what you have, and then upgrade anything that doesn't seem satisfactory. <br>
<br><br>Good Luck,<br><br>Josh<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Jeff Holicky <<a href="mailto:myth.myth_user@myth.sent.com">myth.myth_user@myth.sent.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
Hi all, I am looking at implementing a Myth system at home - with up to<br>
five frontends when all is said and done. We rent a dual tuner PVR and<br>
also have a cable box - limited to a small harddrive and no real<br>
archival system nor easy way of playing back multiple formats has helped<br>
with my decision to create a myth system. Definitely looking at at<br>
least 3-4 SD (standard def) tuners initially [PVR 150x4] (later HD) and<br>
would like some feedback on my initial setup and to realistically set my<br>
expectations.<br>
<br>
Today I want to have the BE act as an occasional FE with plans down the<br>
road to make it a BE only box (if possible). Running 100Mbit CAT5 cable<br>
with the goal to run 1000Mbit CAT6 and/or try wireless. Perhaps in a<br>
year or two move to HD by swapping out 2SD tuners. Start off with two<br>
dedicated FE's.<br>
<br>
Don't want DVD players on each FE - want to stream archive content off a<br>
NAS device. (1 or 2TB drive; 100 or Gigabit)<br>
<br>
Q1) I am not clear on the ability to do multiple streaming AND recording<br>
simultaneously. Someone I spoke to felt my ability to do both may be a<br>
problem due to bottleneck issues at the HDD. Assuming a model of 4<br>
tuners - 1 streaming; 3 recording OR 2 streaming 2 recording; OR 3<br>
streaming 1 recording -- are all these possible?<br>
<br>
Q2) Then there is that "commercial skipping" process - not sure if that<br>
still needs to be processed off peak times or not.<br>
<br>
Q3) Plus is there a difference between<br>
a) Streaming program A; recording program B<br>
OR<br>
b) Recording program A and streaming program A (few minutes offset)<br>
<br>
Q4) I have noticed some that already have 2HD and 2SD tuners in one box<br>
- but then if they are only recording (on one or more), then there may<br>
not be any problems.<br>
<br>
Q5) My friend suggested the issue was less CPU and more HDD - and maybe<br>
if I was running a 10K drive - MAYBE I would be okay -- and/or if I<br>
mixed in a RAID system of sorts to balance the load.<br>
<br>
Q6) The other thought is adding in a second backend eventually - not<br>
sure if that is a no brainer or exponentially more complex and not<br>
desirable.<br>
<br>
Q7) I assume playing an archived movie off the NAS is merely networking<br>
between the NAS and FE - and cabling and less BE - please confirm.<br>
<br>
*Config*<br>
Part of my plan having 4 tuners hit a road block with most MOBOs today<br>
supporting only 3 PCI cards (Thanks to Brian for pointing that out). I<br>
found one so far - but also I remembered I have a P4. I feel if the P4<br>
works, based on set expectations, then I can buy a nice higher end<br>
system as a desktop replacement. Worse case later turn the P4 into a<br>
FE.<br>
<br>
Currently I have:<br>
- ASUS P4P800 MOBO (enough PCI slots);<br>
- Intel P4 2.8Ghz w/HT;<br>
- 2GB RAM;<br>
- 450W P/S<br>
- ATI All-in-Blunder 9600 of which I would only use for controlling the<br>
video out (if possible)<br>
- ATA 133 HDD - I have several 120GB 7200RPM drives at my disposal ..<br>
see below<br>
<br>
MOBO supports:<br>
<br>
- 2xUDMA 100 (4drives)<br>
- 2xSATA w/RAID 0<br>
<br>
RAID CONTROLLER<br>
- 2xUDMA 133 (4drives)<br>
- RAID 0, 1, 0+1, RAID JBOD<br>
<br>
Moving to SATA doesn't seem to be that much of an option with this MOBO<br>
- I figure I am just as well with the RAID controller (I use ATA 133<br>
today with 4 drives).<br>
<br>
<br>
If my ideas of streaming and recording are not far fetched - but my<br>
config is a little dated, if possible, please point me in a direction -<br>
need a MOBO that has X; or a minimum CPU Y etc.<br>
Just want some input - a "that dog will or won't hunt" big picture<br>
response.<br>
<br>
thanks all & cheers!<br>
jeff<br>
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</blockquote></div><br>