[mythtv-users] Remote Backend

[Jake Sanders]

I've currently got a Mandrake 10 system with a non-MPEG capture card.  I got
a new PVR 250 (Model 980) card yesterday, and fought with it all night
trying to get it to work.

I've finally decided that the only hope of getting it to work is to switch
to another distro.  However, I fear if I try to switch the system I'm using
to another distro, I will lose capability that I have already spent weeks
getting to work.

Luckily I happen to have another older linux box laying around, and I
thought I would just throw the PVR 250 in it and use it as a backend only
system.  However, my big harddrive is in the Mandrake 10 box (which will
still be my frontend).

If I record something on my PVR250 backend, it will save the file over the
network to the frontend box.  Now, finally, for my question.  When I want to
watch a program recorded by the PVR250, I think the frontend will ask for
the data from the remote backend, which will have to read it off the disk in
the frontend (meaning the data has to go from the frontend box to the
backend box and back to the frontend box).  Is that really the case?  Or
does the backend just tell the frontend where the file is located and let it
read it itself (in which case the frontend would just read the file on the
local disk, and the video doesn't have to cross the network at all)?

Sorry for the long setup.
Jake