[mythtv-users] Backend / Frontend advise

[Jonathan Oexner]

Sorry to semi-hijack, but I'm in a kinda similar situation.  I've got an
Athlon XP 1800+ box with 3/4 gig of memory and a 4x AGP slot.  Right now I'm
just using it as a backend to capture SD via a PVR-250 card.  I'm using an
XBox as a remote frontend, via a component video adapter hooked up to my HD
TV.  Works like a charm, couldn't be happier, but...

At the end of the month I'll be getting a DTC-62xx (I think) from RCN here
in Boston.  I'd like to capture via the Firewire port and watch it on my TV,
but I understand that the XBox probably doesn't have the horsepower to
decode and display a 1080i signal.  Is there a video card with component
video outputs that I can drop into the 4x AGP slot on my mobo that will be
able to render a 1080i video stream?

I've heard people mention that some Nvidia 6200-based cards come with a
component-out dongle and they work well for HD video, but all the cards I've
seen say AGP 8x (or PCI-e).  Would an AGP 8x Nvidia 6200 card even work in a
4x AGP slot, or would the video kinda suck if the card stepped itself down
to AGP 4x?

-Jon


On 1/10/06, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
>
> 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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