[mythtv-users] MythTV setup distributed over WAN link

[Ryan Steffes]

On 10/4/07, Daniel Agar <daniel at agar.ca> wrote:
> > I wish to record a small number of shows that are not
> > available in my area (mainly a couple PBS shows our
> > local affiliate does not pick up).  I have a spare
> > machine and tuner card to place at a family member's
> > home.  My plan is to transfer the files using DVDs or,
> > when I visit, a portable HDD.  (Or occasionally a
> > network copy in the middle of the night.)
> >
> > My first thought was to set the remote machine up as a
> > completely isolated MythTV system, with its own
> > database, and occasionally log in to it remotely by
> > SSH to check things out or burn files to a DVD.  I'll
> > then have *.mpg files that I can somehow import into
> > MythTV.  Somehow I will then have to construct
> > metadata.
> >
> > My second thought was to integrate the remote system
> > into my existing MythTV setup so that I can manage and
> > monitor the entire system from one place.  I'll set up
> > OpenVPN between the sites, which I have done before
> > for various projects so that's no problem.  I believe
> > that I will then have all the metadata and when I move
> > the corresponding *.mpg file into one of my storage
> > groups, it will stream from my local backend.
> >
> > However, I *do not* want my local frontends to try to
> > stream a program from the remote backend, because it
> > either will be too slow to work, or it will use enough
> > bandwidth that said family member might no longer be
> > willing to host said remote backend.
> >
> > So -- is it possible (either in the MythTV setup or by
> > blocking ports at the firewall) to prevent the
> > streaming as I have described, while still allowing
> > this setup to work?
> >
> >
> I'm not sure about blocking only streaming, but transferring mpeg2 over
> the tubes is going to be a time consuming process unless you have fiber at
> both ends.
> Have you considered having an isolated remote myth box and setup all of
> your recordings with a userjob that starts nuvexport after each recording?
> You could then transfer your (significantly smaller) recordings through
> ssh.
> These episodes wouldn't be integrated with the rest of the recordings, but
> you could watch them in mythvideo and set nuvexport to output the file
> with the recording name, date and episode title.
>
>

I agree, your best bet is to treat them as entirely seperate systems,
export the files, and watch them via mythvideo.  Transferring them
with scp is probably also more convenient than other methods, and a
bit more secure.

I'm assuming that you want to have the backends know about each other
for convenience in setting recordings.   You can have similar
convenience just by setting up MythWeb on the remote backend and
treating them completely seperately.  The only benefit to having the
backends know about each other is for duplicate matching, but if the
shows don't exist in your lineups, then there's not really any benefit
to that.  You don't need to bother with the metadata unless it's
really important to you, because the local machine will never need to
use it for conflict resolution (if it did, you wouldn't need to the
other machine in the first place!)