[mythtv-users] My Ultimate Mythtv?

[Jarod Wilson]

On Tuesday, Sep 16, 2003, at 10:38 US/Pacific, Brad Sagowitz wrote:

> Great!  I think it might be better to just get PVR-250's for each 
> front end
> and have each box control its own receiver.... that in theory should 
> work.
> Thanks for the reply.... anyone else?

I think that is probably the easier route to go, rather than mucking 
with trying to control multiple DirecTV receivers from one box. You'll 
also get more responsiveness on each frontend when they're accessing 
locally stored shows and/or live TV buffers.

>> Comments inline...

Mine too.

>>> Backend: (headless)
>>>
>>> AMD 1.4 GHZ proc (1600+) (have already)
>>> 512mb PC133 (have already)
>>> ECS k7s5a (have already)
>>> 1 20gb drive for operating system (have already)
>>> 3 160GB Seagate Drives LVM'd as /var/mythtv for storage (will buy)
>>> Case with 400w PSU (have already) but will upgrade to a Antec Sonata 
>>> for
>> more drive mounts
>>> 3Com 3c905c NIC (have already)
>>> 2 PVR-250's (have already one will buy the other)
>>
>> As far as specs go, this is fine for a backend.  You may be surprised 
>> at
> how
>> quickly your drive fills up with 2 PVR-250s, though.

I'd suggest looking into auto-transcoding files to mpeg4...

>> Also, have you
>> considered allocating space on one of your drives for music or movie 
>> rips?
>> You'd have to NFS mount those directories to access them from a remote
>> frontend, but you may want to figure that into your setup...

Perhaps a 160 in each frontend, and one in the backend?...

>>> SoundBlaster Audigy 2 or M-Audio Revolution (will buy) I want optical
>>> to my Pioneer 43TX
>>> Elite Receiver don't know yet how to get this
>>> 3Com 3c905c NIC
>>> Hauppauge 401 WinTV (will buy)
>>
>>
>> then what you're setting up is really a master backend plus 2 slave
>> backend/frontend combos.  The slave backends (WinTV tuners) could 
>> record
>> either to their local disks or to the master backend's disk via an NFS
>> mount.  Either way, all recordings will be available to both 
>> frontends.
>> It's just a question of how you want to manage your disk space.

Whoa. 4 tuners... Fun! Yes, you definitely have some planning to do to 
figure out where to put what... I'd probably go with PVR-250s in the 
frontend/slave backends, but set their tuners as the first two the 
master backend, so they get used first.

>>> will MythTV be able to control two seperate receivers using lircd?

Definitely could be problematic... With four tuners and three machines, 
you'll have to figure that out at one point or another, or just back 
off to three tuners, and send one of your four DirecTV signals straight 
to a TV. Personally, I still find it useful to be able to watch stuff 
without it having to go through my MythTV box (for example, I have an 
HD cable box, and the HD channels need to go straight to the TV's 
component video inputs to watch them in true HD).

>>> Question #2
>>>
>>> Can you guys/gals see anything wrong with the hardware I have/will 
>>> buy?
>>
>> I have no experience with the specific mobos or sound cards you 
>> mention.
>> The GF4MX 'just works' for TV-out, and I have an Athlon XP 1600+ in my
>> 1-tuner backend/frontend combo with a single WinTV tuner, working just
> fine.
>> Other than that, I can't say.

Looks fine to me too.

>>> Question #3
>>>
>>> What soundcard is everyone using to get optical out to a receiver?
>>
>> I dunno... I'm still getting by with my 10-yr-old Denon receiver 
>> w/Dolby
> Pro
>> Logic :-)

I'm using an Audigy OEM for digital coax out to my Yamaha receiver/amp. 
It doesn't have any optical out. However, one of the Audigy's w/the 
LiveDrive (or whatever it is they call it) that does have optical out 
ought to work just fine. You'll definitely need to use ALSA, but it'll 
work. If you feel like spending that much extra money though, I'd say 
just get the M-Audio Revolution. They also work nicely with ALSA, and I 
think they're overall a better quality and better sounding card, due to 
M-Audio's high-end heritage. I also love the fact that you can use that 
card under Linux, Windows and Mac... I plan on getting one myself very 
soon (for my Mac, though I'm debating holding off until I get a G5 and 
try its onboard optical out). Everything I've heard about the 
Revolution has been positive, while I've heard plenty of negatives 
about Audigys, which could just be due to their greater market share. 
I've had no problems with mine...

Also, for what its worth, an audiophile friend of mine swears that 
digital coax is actually better than digital optical. I've got both 
types of inputs on my receiver/amp, and I really only went with coax 
because that's what I had for an output on my Audigy, and the optical 
inputs are in use by my XBox and HD cable box. Obviously, either one is 
significantly better than an analog connection.

--Jarod

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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MythTV, Red Hat Linux 9 & ATrpms documentation:
http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=rh9pvr250