[mythtv-users] Some Quick Questions about MythTV

[Scot L. Harris]

On Tue, 2005-10-25 at 16:25, Steve Adeff wrote:
> On Tuesday 25 October 2005 15:42, Scot L. Harris wrote:
> > On Tue, 2005-10-25 at 15:18, Joshua Lewis wrote:
> > > I am seriously considering the MythTV as an alternative to having 5
> > > satellite receivers and DVD players and computers and stuff in my house.
> > > I want desperately to consolidate my house.
> > 
> > Have read that many people utilize X-Box systems as frontend systems.
> > These connect to the backend system to pull recordings.  Not sure if
> > there are any limitations on such an X-Box frontend.
> >
> > I've been looking at putting together a diskless frontend system using
> > small form factor motherboard but have not spent enough time to pick out
> > the right mother board yet.
> 
> the Xbox can not handle raw HD MPEG-TS streams. But for standard definition TV 
> I've found it to be perfect. It is also able to handle what are termed 
> "hr.hdtv" XviD encodes. Which is a 1/2 res full AC3 audio encode of HDTV 
> shows. They're popular in "the scene" and a great way to archive HDTV shows 
> in a small file size with near equal quality.
> 
> as for other options, there is a device called Roku, which can handle HDTV 
> MPEG2 streams and standard def. TV. The MythTV build for it is still in 
> inafancy though, but it promises to be a great, cheap frontend ($300).
> 

Been sorting through the options available using one of the EPIA
boards.  Trying to find one that has s-video output and mpeg2 decoding
that can handle shows recorded using PVR cards.  


> 
> I'm also going to add that there are some recent posts concerning LVM's and 
> RAID that you'll want to search gossamer for. You look to be building a 
> rather large file server into your backend, and at this point these are your 
> best bets. I'm trying to see if the dev's will entertain the idea of having 
> more than one recordings directory that would allow for all this to be much 
> easier.

My main backend system had four 300GB drives with one LVM group setup as
a 1TB file system which I use for recordings.  At this point I did not
bother with raid.  If a drive fails I lose the recordings.