[mythtv-users] mp3 listening

Joseph A. Caputo jcaputo1 at comcast.net
Wed Aug 6 11:39:22 EDT 2003


-----Original Message-----
>From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org]On Behalf Of
>Brett_M_Spooner at raytheon.com
>Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 6:54 PM
>To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>Subject: [mythtv-users] mp3 listening
>
>
>
>I am interested in MythTVs multitasking with both frontend & backend
running.
>I want to use it in its truest sense w/ frontend only 24/7 - remote
controlled.
>I heard people talk about turning off the frontend & using other apps
but....
>(I know all this depends on hardware performance - but say you had headroom
of 25%-50%)
>
>How does MythTV react if you are listening to MP3s & then it has to record
a program?
>(that may be a loaded question because if I've been reading correctly you
would need a PVR w/
>line in or 2 audio cards)
>
>Does it shut down the MP3 jukebox or keep playing?
>What about if your watching a DVD?
>
>Everyone just talks about CPU usage while endcoding/decoding   ..  I want
to know what its
>like multitasking.
>Can you enlighten me as I am still investigating options.


If you can watch live TV (i.e., record & playback at the same time = full
duplex, or btaudio + sound output), then you can listen to mp3s and record a
show at the same time, as far as your sound card is concerned.  You don't
need an extra sound card.  Also, if you can watch live TV, then your machine
is quite capable of simultaneously encoding (recording a show) and decoding
(playing back an mp3 stream), so listening to mp3s while recording a show
shouldn't cause any hiccups (unless your recording profile is an order of
magnitude more demanding than your LiveTV profile).

You can 'multitask' any number of things with Myth.  You can use MythMusic,
MythVideo, MythWeather, whatever, without disrupting any of your scheduled
recordings.  The only thing you *can't* do is encode more simultaneous
streams than you have tuner cards (i.e., you can't watch LiveTV on one
channel while recording a show on another, unless you have 2 tuner cards.
You will be forced to choose between them).  Everything else is only limited
by available PC resources (CPU, memory, etc).  Of course, if you do
something outside of Myth that taxes the CPU (like rebuilding your kernel),
it may cause the backend to drop some frames.  Also, if you use a program
external to Myth to manipulate your tuner card (like xawtv), it could
interrupt an in-progress Myth recording.  Other than that, the software
itself has no limitations other than your hardware.

-JAC



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