[mythtv-users] Newbie questions about MythTV solution

[Joseph A. Caputo]

Jerry Rubinow wrote:

> I have two TVs, one in the family room and one in the bedroom, and
> I'm thinking it would make sense to have a frontend in each of those
> rooms.  I'd have the backend elsewhere containing all the storage and
> at least two tuners and it would also control the digital cable box.
> The add-ons I'd want to use would be MythDVD, MythGallery, MythGame,
> MythMusic, MythWeather, and MythWeb.  I have an 802.11g network at my
> house.

Sounds like a good plan for a setup.  One thing to note (which you've 
probably noticed, anyway, but bear with me): the plugins are all 
frontend-only apps, meaning if you want, say, MythVideo or MythMusic on 
both of your frontends, then they either both need copies of your music 
& video files, or at least one of them needs to mount the directory over 
the network.  I believe the mount point must always be the same, though 
I could be wrong there.

> Questions:
> 
> Is using the 802.11g network for streaming the video not feasible
> right now?  It doesn't look like there are any Linux drivers for
> Linksys 802.11g cards as far as I could tell.

Last I heard, there was no Linux support for any 802.11g card on the 
market, but as I don't have one, I haven't been following this.  A 
viable option would be to use an RJ-45 Ethernet-to-wireless-G adapter, 
which only requires an Ethernet card & driver for Linux.

> I've read some about MiniMyth, and I'm interested in having the two
> frontend machines be diskless for noise reduction purposes, as well
> as a small form factor.  Is this feasible and what problems can I
> expect?

SFF & low noise boxes are always being discussed on the mailing list; 
you almost don't even need to search as something is posted on this 
subject nearly every day.  Check it out.  I myself have a big, hot beige 
mini-tower in my living room, so I can't really comment :-)

> Does MythGame work in the same way as the video and audio in that you
> can have all the game roms and other info located remotely on the
> backend?

Well, the roms can be hosted on a network share, but when you run 
MythGame on a frontend, that frontend needs the appropriate hardware to 
support running xmame, or whatever.  If it's a frontend, it will 
probably already have a viable sound card & video card; the only thing 
you might need to add is a joystick.  Oh, also, xmame at least doesn't 
work with LIRC/irxevent as keyboard input, so you might want a real 
keyboard on that box as well.  It can coexist with LIRC, though (i.e., 
you can stow the keyboard and only bring it out when you want to use 
MythGame).

> If one tuner is busy recording something, and I tell one of the
> frontends I want to watch something live, does it automatically
> search for a free tuner?

There was a thread on this recently, I can never quite remember how it 
works.  I only have one tuner.

>> From either frontend, I'd like to be able to: use it as a PVR,
>> stick in a DVD and play it, stream audio, view pictures, look at
>> weather info, and play MAME.  I only need access to MythWeb
>> remotely, not from the frontends.  Should this be possible and what
>> issues can I expect to have to resolve?

Only that you need the hardware & processing power in each frontend to 
support whatever you want.  Keep in mind that what you refer to as 
'streaming audio' (I assume you're referring to MythMusic) is really 
just hosting an mp3/ogg/flac player, with the music files located in a 
directory that may be local or network-mounted.  In general, nothing in 
Myth is 'streamed' other than the basic TV recordings.

Sounds like you understand the high-level architecture reasonable well. 
  Good luck with your setup!

-JAC