[mythtv-users] Backend / Frontend advise

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Tue Jan 10 17:36:11 UTC 2006


N Dugas wrote:

>Steve Adeff wrote:
>  
>
>>On Monday 09 January 2006 14:00, N Dugas wrote:
>>
>>>After having Myth running for about 6 months, I and thinking of changing
>>>how I have it set up.  Right now, both the front and back ends are on
>>>the same box which has a PVR-350 tuner.  What I'd like to do is this:
>>>
>>>Make my current Myth box a backend only but also add a firewire
>>>connection to my DCT-6412.  I then plan on setting up another Myth box
>>>as a frontend only.  My understanding is that the frontend has lower HW
>>>requirements.
>>>
>>>Hardware config for my current Myth box (to become my backend) is:
>>>
>>>Mobo: A7N8X-E Deluxe
>>>CPU: Athlon XP 3000
>>>RAM: 1G Dual DDR
>>>Video: ATI Radeon 9550 w/ 256M
>>>Disk: Seagate 200G
>>>Lan: D-LINK DWL-G520 Wireless NIC
>>>Connected to my 26" Samsung LCD HDTV.
>>>
>>>I have at my disposal (to use/swap into this box if needed, based on
>>>feedback):
>>>GeForce FX5500 w/ 256M
>>>Seagate 200G
>>>Extra 512M Dual DDR stick
>>>
>>>For my new frontend:
>>>Mobo: MSI KT4V-L
>>>CPU: Athlon XP 1800
>>>RAM: 512M
>>>Video: Whatever is left, ATI Radeon 9550 or ATI Radeon 9550
>>>Disk: Seagate 200G
>>>Lan: D-LINK DWL-G520 Wireless NIC
>>>
>>>
>>>Will this work?
>>>
>>Are you planning on doing HD? If not, your current BE/FE machine is more than 
>>adequate to handle the PVR350 and DCT6412.
>>
>I'm hoping to do HD since I've got a handful of HD chanels.  I've been 
>hearing that the Nvidia card should be able to do it if I enable XvMC.
>  
>
ATI's drivers don't support XvMC.  Rumor has it they're "working on it" 
(and have been for literally years).  So, go with NVIDIA on the frontend.

Also, take Fred's advice--the frontend needs to be the more powerful 
system (especially if doing HDTV).  If you're using hardware encoders 
for SDTV (i.e. Hauppauge PVR-x50's) or digital video capture cards (i.e. 
DVB or ATSC (US HDTV)), the backend just has to dump data to disk.  The 
commflagging and transcoding are the most processor-intensive parts on 
the backend but don't have to be done in real-time.  Also, you can have 
your other Myth machine (that you use as the frontend) do some/all of 
the commflagging/transcoding.

Also, my dedicated backend has a 2MB PCI graphics card in it.  I may go 
up to a spare MX440 just so I can use the AGP port and free up a PCI 
slot (stupid doesn't-support-AGP-1X motherboard won't let me use my Riva 
TNT 8MB).  A 9550 is a bit of a waste of a video card on a backend, so 
if you have a cheaper card that fits the board, you can save the 9550 
for a different system.  (I don't even start X on my backend.)

Mike


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