[mythtv-users] Newbie questions

[Gavin Haslett]

I'm not really that familiar with CentOS, but it's Linux. You can still pretty much follow Jared's guide and obviously adapt where necessary. Should not be a problem so long as you have a reasonable working knowledge of Linux (sounds like you do). If CentOS is RPM or APT based, you should be good to go.

1) There IS a mythfrontend for Windows, but trust me it's more trouble than it's worth... at least in the incarnation that I played with. I put it on my dual PIII-933 and as well as being a bear to set up in the first place, it became very unreliable and didn't really play back recordings very well (or reliably). I gave up and installed Fedora on said machine and ran a real myth front end on it when I want it. Haven't looked back (but XP is still on the box if I feel the need to play a game)

2) No. Only backends need cards... frontends use the cards in the backends.

3) Although the bandwidth of 802.11g is sufficient for SDTV (don't try HDTV... it won't be pretty), the problem with all wireless is reliability, interference, recovery and above all latency. Latency is naturally higher on wireless LANs than on wired. Video is quite sensitive to lags and quirks in the signal. Interference can make this worse, and recovery time when interfered with can make the difference between it working and not. Depending on environmental factors, your mileage may vary. In my experience, having a 2.4Ghz cordless phone can cause all kinds of fun in the house with 802.11...

Having said that about wireless, give it a shot. I've run my setup off a 10Mbit/s Ethernet switch when my main switch fried (since replaced) and it worked admirably for feeding data across the wire at a relatively low speed. However, latency was excellent and I didn't have any problems with environmental interference.




-----Original Message-----
From:	mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org on behalf of Benjamin J. Weiss
Sent:	Wed 7/6/2005 4:06 PM
To:	mythtv-users at mythtv.org
Cc:	
Subject:	[mythtv-users] Newbie questions
All,

I've been trying to read everything, but I'm trying to get this set up 
before I leave for a couple of weeks of military duty and I'm running 
out of time.  Please be patient with these questions if I haven't found 
the answers where I should have.

Background:  I've got an AMD Athlon 2100+ XP box, and I've put in an 
Hauppauge PVR-350.  I don't have it configured yet, as I'm planning on 
upgrading the OS from CentOS-3 to CentOS-4 (I'm working on that part 
now).  I want this box to be in our family room, to act as our DVD 
player / music center / PVR, basically as a back-end and front-end.

 I also have a P4 3.0GHz machine running Windows 2000 (yeah, I know, but 
it's easier to run games that way than to run an emulator) and it has an 
MSI NX6600GT video card.  I'd like this box to be a front-end.  Due to 
physical constraints, this box will have to be connected to the home 
network via wireless.

1) Is there a windows front-end for myth-tv?

2) Would it benefit me to put another Hauppauge card in the Windows 
front-end?  If so, which one?

3) What kind of bandwidth should I expect to need if I want to play a 
recorded show on the windows front-end?  Will an 802.11g 54Meg 
connection handle the load easily, or should I look at a more expensive 
Pre-N router / card combo?

My plan is to (hopefully) have the box converted to CentOS-4 sometime in 
the next week, then (again, hopefully) install mythtv using a repo 
(atrpms?), and get it working in the next three weeks before I leave.

Thanks,

Ben
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