<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 7:01 PM, James Miller <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gajs-f0el@dea.spamcon.org" target="_blank">gajs-f0el@dea.spamcon.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><span class="">On Wed, 25 Feb 2015, Dave MythTV wrote:<br>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
Yep, when you go for REALLY-low-power systems, things get... interesting.<br>
:-) Trickier to set up, but rewarding when finished.<br>
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<br>
Before I made my LIVA a BE+FE combo, I was running it as a frontend only,<br>
to a backend machine which had an Intel Celeron 1037U processor (my<br>
previous FE+BE machine). The 1037U has about twice the performance of the<br>
</blockquote>
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As I mentioned in a private note, I finally managed to find your original thread about this machine, Dave. I saw there that you say have 3 capture cards. Just curious, what is/are your capture device(s)? Network tuner(s), USB, or what? Thanks<div class=""><div class="h5"><br></div></div></blockquote><div><br><br><br></div><div>I went with USB tuners, for a whole bunch of reasons. :-)<br><br><br></div><div>I borrowed a HDHomeRun from a relative for testing, but found that the HDHR used quite a lot of electricity - on par with the whole rest of my system. So using USB tuners, even including the powered USB hub, dropped my total power consumption by quite a bit.<br><br></div><div>Secondly, USB tuners keep the data traffic "local". So if I want to stream a program to/from another machine, while the LIVA is recording two or three things, that program being streamed is the only thing on the network. It isn't fighting for bandwidth on a network link that already has a substantial amount of congestion from the traffic to/from the HDHR. This is also more robust if your network has interference (wi-fi), or if your router is flaky.<br><br></div><div>Third, the USB tuners are *SMALL*, and there are no external power bricks. So while visually more messy at the computer (can't hide it away somewhere else like the HDHR), it's a lot more space efficient. And not needing power bricks is a huge plus.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Fourth, I really wanted THREE tuners. With MythTV's amazing scheduling system, we could *almost* get by with two tuners. But when you hit that prime-time snag, and your wife asks: <br> "Why is it waiting until next Thursday to record my show that was a new episode tonight? <br> My friends are going to be talking about it at work tomorrow!"<br>.... well, there are times when having the ability to record more programs *sooner* is better than just making sure they "all get recorded". :-) Three tuners with the networked HDHomeRun would also mean having TWO HDHomeRuns... which is expensive, power hungry (and needing two power bricks), and just a lot of equipment.<br><br></div><div>Fifth - cost. The HDHR Dual is ~$100 new on Amazon ($130 direct from SiliconDust) and when I was looking, they were I think $60+ used. It's been years ago now, but I think I paid $50 shipped for *five* used USB tuners as a lot back when I bought mine.<br><br></div><div>Lastly, with everything co-located and with lower overall power usage, it makes backup/emergency power (UPS) much easier. Instead of needing the PC, the network router/switch, and the HDHR(s), possibly in different parts of the house, to ALL have UPS protection, I can just use a single UPS on the LIVA. If (when) everything else goes down, it's no problem - it will keep on recording.</div><div><br><br><br></div><div>There are pros and cons to each, and there are good arguments (depending on your use case) for the networked HDHomeRun as well. But USB was a clear standout for me. My "tuner of choice" at the moment is the "AVerMedia AVerTVHD Volar (A868R)". Not because I compared all the options and this was the best, but because I got a good deal on them at the time, and they were listed in the LinuxTV database of supported tuners. If I were doing it again, I would probably look for a different tuner with an integrated 'F'-connector to tidy things up, not the add-on MMCX-to-F adapter cable that these require. But aside from that, I've been very happy with them. These are also a 2006/2007 design, so a more modern tuner might also have better tuning sensitivity and/or lower power consumption.<br></div><div><br><br></div><div>Hope that helps!<br></div><div>- Dave<br></div></div></div></div>