AW: [mythtv] Development task list:

[Keith C]

I had a long trailing thought yesterday about a couple of items that  
have been discussed in this thread and others : using embedded  
databases and having multiple storage areas.  They sort of overlapped  
a little and I thought I would throw it up here just for people to  
think about.

First, embedded databases.  I've got a nice Mac laptop that goes on  
the road and runs MythFrontEnd pretty well.  But I can't take a  
backend with me.  But embedded databases might make this possible.   
Think about running a slave backend on your laptop that is instructed  
to connect to the master backend for its database needs, but could  
fail back to a local embedded database if the master is not found.   
What good would that be?  Let's talk about multiple storage areas a  
little.

I've got a pretty wide range of quality of recorded programs, from  
analog cable to 1080i.  I can't playback the 1080i on a couple of my  
FrontEnds, but I don't want to transcode it down to their level, as  
it does look really nice on my HD FrontEnd.  So I was thinking about  
file versioning.  What if a "recordedprogram" could have multiple  
files (looked up in related table)?  Various transcodes could coexist  
and could be used on different frontends.  And transcode profiles  
could select their own storage area, perhaps on a different backend.

Ok, there's the convergence.  The slave backend could store a  
particular transcode's files locally and mirror the database  
information for them.  A portable frontend could be disconnected from  
the network and play it's local content without the master around.   
Of course, synchronization issues become a nightmare pretty quickly.   
What does the master do if it can't write to a remote storage area?   
How does the mobile frontend get back in sync when it reconnects?

Of course, this adds the option to have a 320x240 mpeg4 transcode  
profile that writes to a "put these files on my video iPod" directory.

Its not all easy stuff, or maybe not even possible in the framework  
we're starting from.  But something to think about.  Feel free to  
ignore a lurker that hasn't made a contribution yet (Yet!).

Keith C