[mythtv-users] Mythtv newbie questions...

[Jack Trout]

>
> How much power do I need in a frontend machine to play into an SD TV but
> with source that is HD?  Is that just as difficult as playing full HD?
>  How
> much computing power will I need here?  Can the remote computer be a
> windows
> machine (Like my wife's desktop?)
>
If your backend doesnt transcode the file to something lower, you will need
a either a faster processor or a video card very good at scaling. I had a
frontend which was an XP2200+ with GF4 Ti4200 and it would studder on a
recorded HD file that the stream was 1080i. regardless if I had it connected
to my HDTV @ 1080p which would need no scaling, or connected to a monitor
which was limited to 1024x768, it had the same stutter pattern,

It has been a while since I have played with the windows executable as a
frontend, so cant say how it is, but the old version had next to no features
and did not act as a full frontend. but maybe a dualboot frontend, or some
of the livecd or boot off a flash drive versions of Myth like Knoppmyth
might work in that case.


>
> Also, how much computing power for the main frontend machine?  This one
> will
> drive the 720p projector.


Will your streams you record be 720p? I havent tried intel processors, but
in AMD 720p and 1080i seems to stutter on anything less than a 3ghz equiv
processor, ie AMD 3000+ and a decent video chipset not on the PCI bus (PCI-E
or AGP or directly on the Mboard chipset)

>
>
> I am looking at this split configuration so that I can have a low power
> (watts) solution.  Perhaps I should just build one monster and use suspend
> to save power.  Does that work and is it easy to use (like works
> automatically)?


Well in my case I power on my frontend only machines as needed and leave my
backend on 24x7, and I do watch the power levels drop on my UPS when its
idle because the motherboard does have cool & quiet enabled.
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