[mythtv-users] Frontend for home theater

[Chad]

On 11/4/05, Michael Tiller <michael.tiller at gmail.com> wrote:
> At work we just got a $700 computer projector that looks fantastic.  I
> hooked my laptop up to it while watching a widescreen DVD and it even seems
> to support the widescreen format quite nicely.

At work I play with needles and medicine, I wish we also had a
beautiful new projector to help the day pass ;)

> So, I'm thinking about getting one of these for my basement.  My plan would
> be to mount it on the ceiling and project it against a wall.  I'd also like
> to hook a very simple MythTV frontend up to it.  My plan would be to have
> only a DVD reader, small hardrive (if necessary), network and video card in
> it (i.e. no tuner cards and no direct live TV feed to the projector...only
> live TV from a backend over the network).

That does sound nice and cheap.  I've heard that cheap and Lumens=x is
not always what to look for in a projector.  Bulb life and cost for
replacement is also equally important.  Sounds cool though.

> Here are a few questions:
>
> 1) Any comments on why this might be a bad idea? :-)  It sure looks
> attractive to me.

Just the notes above, and below ;)

> 2) Any special issues with video cards?  When I hooked my laptop up the
> projector we have at work, it seemed like my laptop was putting out a
> special resolution on the output port and that the projector was matching
> it.  The widescreen version looked great.  Will all video cards+X.conf be
> able to provide the optimal widescreen resolution or is this a special
> feature to look for?

Nvidia is really nice.  I don't know if I'd stray too far at this
point in time from Nvidia cards.  Until something major changes, I
believe this is generally considered what Myth users suggest.

> 3) The projector we have at work is a 1600 lumens Panasonic.  It also seems
> fairly cheap.  I get the impression it can support some pretty high
> resolutions (HDTV?)

Sweet.  I have no idea if this is the case, but check out sites like
projectorcentral.com  (which has a group of very intelligent folks on
their lists) for info on what projectors to look for and look OUT for.

> 4) I've got a fairly nice 5.1 receiver plus speakers.  Anything special I
> need to hook that up to a computer?  If I play a DVD, will it send a
> pro-logic encoded signal over normal "line out" or do I need to have a sound
> card that can split it up locally and then send out all the signals
> separately?  I may just skip the 5.1 for now use simulated surround sound.

I do too, well 6.1 but close enough ;)  I have recently been looking
at the ( http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Turtle-Beach-Riviera-Six-Channel-PCI-Sound-Card-RIVERA-/sem/rpsm/oid/118099/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
) which I understand has an optical (toslink) connector for digital
out to your reciever.  Supposedly works great with Linux.  Otherwise,
for now I just use analog out and simulate surround, sounds good
enough for now...

> 5) I'd like this to be as cheap as possible (WAF).  If I'm just using the
> frontend to playback DVDs and programs recorded on a backend, I assume I can
> get by with some pretty low end specs.  Since I only need to do playback, I
> suppose a PIII could probably fit the bill although I suspect that might
> actually be hard to find.  I have this thought in my head that someday I'll
> have HD quality recordings on my backend.  What does it take to get HDTV
> playback (only) for a frontend.  The MythTV site mentions some kind of
> NVIDIA acceleration?  I probably can't afford to protect for this capability
> but it doesn' t hurt to at least understand the tradeoff.

Oh yeah, don't we all want it cheap and cool ;)  If you assume that,
you must also be assuming you'll be using xvmc on all high def
recordings.  With most other recordings and DVD's I've encountered,
not using xvmc on a P3 866, it works fine but is slightly sluggish.  I
trade sluggish for (nearly) silent and cheap, so it works for me.  So,
to re-word that:
For standard recordings using something like a PVR250 or a generic
bt87x card generating mpeg4 files, a p3 866 *should* work, same with
DVD's.  For anything high def, you'll either need a lot more cpu (it's
been noted several times that a p4 3.0Ghz is minimum though I have had
luck with an AMD64 3200) or off load the work to xvmc (an nvidia card
using the proprietary drivers).

> 6) I considered a diskless configuration (probably save me money), but it
> seems SO COMPLICATED to setup.  Could I boot KnoppMyth and then take the > DVD out?

I have yet to actually be able to do this, even with enough RAM to
offload the DVD image, so I don't know how much luck others have had
with this, so YMMV.  I'd say if you *really* want something like
diskless, look at finding a mobo that boots USB and use a thumb drive
or something, it really simplifies life to just have linux installed
to your 1GB USB drive if you want to free your DVD drive.  At least
that's the route I would go if I were definitely going diskless.

> Would that work?!?  Then I could save on the disk and just boot the
> thing with a DVD and leave it running all the time.  Comments?

As noted above, I'd go USB.  You could do something like an LTSP
station using etherboot or any one of the dozens of other network
booting options, but for me, I'd find the easiest thing to do to just
format a memory stick with ext3, install linux to it, and use it as my
HD.

> Any other suggestions would be very much appreciated.  Unfortunately, I
> don't have much time or money so any suggestions along the lines of quick
> and cheap would be very useful.

Me too!

:D  Check ebay for some old P3 Dell Optiplex G110's.  I think that's
what I've got anyway.  I've got a few more that I might be throwing up
there shortly with Myth installed (gentoo) but I know that any time of
day or night you can fire up ebay and find at least 10 of those (and
they are pretty quiet), and cheap, well I see em for ~60-150 bucks
usually, and usually without any OS (which would be nice so you
wouldn't even have to bother playing with win98 again to remind you of
how bad it actually sucked).  :)

>
> --
> Mike
>
>
> _______________________________________________

Good Luck

Chad