[mythtv-users] Power to the Masses (CPU Power that is) - LONG!!

[John Williams]

> 
> Here is the plan for the backend:
> 
> HD-3000 HDTV PCI Card
> 
> Hauppauge WinTV PVR-350 (someone said you cannot watch DVD's with this
> card, has that been corrected, or should I stick with the 250..?)
> 
> LSI Login MegaRAID SATA Controller
> 
> 4 x Maxtor 300GB Hard Drives (RAID 5)
> 
> Questions for the backend system:
> 
> Do I need a real good video card for this system since it will not be
> hooked to a TV at all...?
> 
> Do I need a decent sound card to capture the sound, or will the ivtv
> driver work for both the 250/350 and the HD-3000
> 
> How powerful of a CPU do I need to handle the HDTV stuff. I realize that
> the 350 has a builtin hardware mpeg encoder/decoder, but I am not sure
> about the HDTV side of the house.
> 
> Do I need a separate tuner card in the backend system for each frontend
> system in order for them to watch separate 'live' channels..? SO if I
> had 3 frontend systems that wanted to watch different 'live' channels, I
> would need 3 x PVR-350's..?
> 
> On the frontend, I assume that I need
> 
> 1) Hard Drive
> 2) Good Video Card
> 3) Good Sound Card
> 
> The hard drive does not have to be that big because its only going to
> run the front end application correct..? No need for mysql, and all the
> extra stuff that had to been installed in the backend, or am I incorrect
> here..?
> 
> On the video card, I was told to use a card that supported XV. I was
> hoping to use a nice ATI or NVidia that would support component out as
> opposed to composite or S-Video. But how powerful of a card do I need
> 
> Also, how powerful a machine and video card do I need on the front end
> to watch the HDTV stuff, or is all of that processing done on the
> backend system and just streamed to the frontend..? I was thinking of
> running the ASUS Pundit as my front end systems (with a different video
> card (if necessary)).
>
Ok, Here goes. I'm no expert, but I'll give you what I know. 

The largest advantage of the PVR350 over the PVR250 is the Tv out. If
you aren't going to hook the backend to a TV don't waste the extra
money on the PVR350.

The HDTV content is generally harder on the frontend CPU than the
backend. My understaning is that the HD is in the encoded format
already so the BE just really has to write it to disk. The FE actually
has to decode and then display the content. So your processing will
have to be on the FE machines.

No there is no need for a really good video card on the back end. If
you can read a shell promt you're good. For that matter if you can SSH
in you're good.

If each FE machine wants to watch a different channel through myth
then yes you would need a different card for each FE machine. That
said, these TVs surely have their own tuner so if you don't have that
many cards you just let teh TV tune it. That approach does lose the
timeshift abilities, but not much else. It would be a way to start if
there isn't enough in the budget for the extra tuners on the BE.

There is no need for the soundcard on the BE as far as the PVR 250s
are concerned. I'm pretty sure it is irrelevant for the HD stuff too.

For video cards I'd recommend an NVidia based card most people here
are running them. I don't know much else about that.

I hope some of this is clearer now.

John



 

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