[mythtv-users] VNC as a Single remote for Multiple Frontends

[James L. Paul]

Mercury Morris wrote:
> Recently, I
> 
>  1. Built a MythTV Frontend/Backend combo.
>  2. Added an RF remote, the ATI Remote Wonder.
>  3. Wanted more Frontend/Backend combo's for redundancy, backup, etc.
>  4. Realized multiple ATI Remote Wonder remotes would be Very hard to manage.

I find this interesting, and hope you will explain your design decisions .

> Here's the solution I've decided to go forward with:
> 
>  1. Place a small, silent laptop (DELL I-7500 running Fedora 2,3,4)
>     on a table between easy chairs.

This sounds like your table and chairs are placed to view multiple TVs 
or video displays. How many TVs are your using?

>  2. Add VNC to the xorg.conf file on each Frontend, as shown here
>  
>      http://www.realvnc.com/products/free/4.1/x0.html
>  
>  3. Use vncviewer on the laptop to operate each Frontend.
>     I've tried this already, and it works really well.

I use this method extensively for remote administration in my work, but 
haven't applied it to controlling Myth frontends.

> The MythTV boxes, and their noise, will be in an adjoining room, 
> cables running along the floor and back wall into a Marantz SR-18EX.
> Each Frontend will connect to one of the Marantz' multiple VCR,
> LaserDisk, DVD, or AUX ports.

My backend is in another room, but I currently have only a single TV and 
so only a single frontend.

> The result should be that only one remote, the laptop, will be 
> needed to control all the Frontends.  And several VCR's can be retired.

My main curiosity is your multiple frontends. I assume you have 1 
frontend per display device (TV). How do you handle selecting audio? If 
you don't have 2 or more TVs, why do you have more than 1 frontend?

> For watching Live TV, I bypass MythTV entirely and watch the TV set
> directly.  With enough MythTV capacity, watching Live TV will be the 
> exception.  Watching MythTV will be the rule.

I very rarely watch live TV. I think my main confusion here is that I'm 
not sure how many TVs you have. Your solution is aimed at having only 1 
remote control, and so uses VNC to control multiple frontends. Somehow I 
get the impression you might be viewing all the frontends on a single 
TV, but that doesn't make sense to me since you only need one frontend 
per TV. Are you really being redundant with frontends, and if so, why?