[mythtv-users] Choices to make...

[Jason Schloer]

100 mbps should be plenty unless you have a whole lot else going on on
your network. I do 3 mbps MPEG4 streams with little problem over my 11
mbps wireless network for my laptop. Given what you are trying to do I'd
say drop the tuners into your storage server or even the backup. MY main
reasoning is to cut down on two way traffic. If the tuners are in the
frontend they have to send all the data to the backend across the
network and then turn around and send some or all of it right back out.
Whereas with the cards in the backend servers it goes straight from the
card to the hard drive then out to the frontend. Should cut your live tv
bandwidth in half. Plus it gives you more options for small quiet
frontends. BTW, I just noticed your question, obviously the answer is
yes it does encode, write to disk, then decode for live TV. Also, if
you're getting all PVR 250's there's little reason to not have them on
the backend as the CPU overhead should be fairly low and shouldn't tax
them much at all. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Good luck. Either way
you'll have a very nice setup.


Jason Schloer


-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Chad Vogelsong
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 12:49 PM
To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
Subject: [mythtv-users] Choices to make...

NOTE:  This is a long message from a 5 year Linux veteran but newbie to
MythTV.


I have been doing research into MythTV and setting up a system for about
2 weeks now.  I have read through all the MythTV HOWTO's and browsed the
mailing list & archives, just as a good MythTV newbie should.  However,
I am still on the fence with what overall network architecture to
implement.

Right now, I have a main "storage server" on my home network and a
backup one that maintains a mirror image of the data on the primary.
Both store around 500 GB and have about 300 GB free.

What I would like to do is get a small case like the Shuttle XPC or the
like and make it a MythTV frontend with 2 PVR-250's, a GeForce4 MX 440,
256 MB and a relatively small hard drive (20-30 GB) for the OS & swap.
I don't want to load this box with storage (only 1 hard drive) to keep
the size small.  I would want to use the storage space (I love LVM) on
the main servers to hold all the content.

Basically, I want to know if anybody runs their MythTV from a 100 Mbps
storage backend.  Do you have a Tuner card in your storage backend?  I
know about the frontend / backend / distributed nature of MythTV.  I'm
just trying to figure out how to use it.  The way I see it, I have a few
choices.


1. If there is no serious lag over the network, put a Tuner into primary
storage server and use it as the mythbackend.  Use this card as #3.  Put
a small hard drive & tuner cards #1 & #2 into the mythfrontend box.
Mount the video storage space via NFS.  Let the Windows machine view the
content via SMB.

What about watching Live TV?  Does the signal go straight from the
Tuner, gets encoded / decoded and then displayed?  Or does it need to
write the stream to disk somewhere in that process?


2. Network produces too much lag.  Make the frontend bigger and load it
with 2-3 large drives for media storage.  This would probably not look
to well without a custom built case.  I would really like something that
looks nice sitting on my entertainment shelf.


Since I need to get the right hardware before playing with the software,
all I can go from is what I've read from others.  Is there a way to use
multiple storage places for already-downloaded movies / mp3's / recorded
tv shows / paused live tv / DVD backups / etc.?

If you need any more info, I'll be happy to provide it.  I'm looking for
how different people have their architectures setup.  I would eventually
like to have a frontend at 2-3 different TV's, so the central storage
would be great.  Has anybody experienced network lag with these setups?

I love this mailing list.  It's so active and full of helpful & friendly
people.  Makes me proud to be a community member.

Thanks,
Chad



----------------------------------------------------------------
Chad Vogelsong

Network / Systems Admin, VB / C / C++ / Perl / Java Programming
Technical Support, Building Automation Graphics

cvogelsong at intellimation.cc
http://www.intellimation.cc

Intellimation, Inc.
250 N. Lincoln Ave.
Lebanon, PA  17046

Tel: 717-273-3021
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