[mythtv-users] large mythtv deployment

[Mike Perkins]

Michael Johnson wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 10:29 AM, Mike Perkins <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk
>> wrote:
> 
>> Michael Johnson wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I am doing a fairly large deployment of mythtv at work and I am looking
>> for
>>> any pointers that may help us out. So far we have the following hardware
>> for
>>> a mythtv cluster and we are now debating over the hd5500 or the WinTV-HD
>>> capture cards. We want 8x backends and 8x frontends.
>>>
>>> Hardware:
>>> 1 x Quad core 2.8Ghz / 4G ram / 500G disk
>>> 2 x Quad core 2.4Ghz / 4G ram / 500G disk
>>> 2 x Dual core 2.4Ghz / 4G ram / 500G disk
>>> 8 x 3Ghz / 4Gram / 120G
>>> 1 x appletv frontend
>>> 1 x ps3 frontend
>>>
>>> Plan:
>>> Keep all the frontends and backends in a single room and run 3 ethernet
>>> cables from frontend to the display via HDMI over ethernet thus leaving 1
>>> ethernet cable free for IR and maybe something else.
>>>
>>> In Question:
>>> * What is the length limit on an IR reciever cable?
>>>
>> Why on earth do you want to have eight backends? Are you setting these up
>> to be
>> completely independant of each other? It's not necessary, and you will be
>> duplicating files and effort.
>>
>> --
 > We have 8 satellite feeds. So we don't necessarily want 8 backends, however
 > we want 8 capture cards hooked up (somehow) to the hardware we have below.
 >
(Please don't top-post)
The back ends don't need vast amounts of power, if they are just dumping digital 
data to the disks - which you will be, from satellites. Most motherboards these 
days have two (ish) PCI slots, so going that route means four backends. Don't 
know much about satellite cards, someone else will advise, but there may be dual 
input cards available. I suppose one problem might be if you need a CI interface 
to each input.

One backend will be the master, so it needs an extra disk to store the OS and 
MySQL database on, this needn't be too big (mine is an old 8Gb disk).

The front ends could be small diskless boxes, or even booted off e.g. Compact 
Flash. They are only going to contain an OS and the Myth code. That means they 
can be placed next to the screen and you don't have to bother with HDMI over 
ethernet - using proper ethernet instead to connect to the backend(s). If the 
front ends are going to have independant selection of programs, you will need an 
IR feed for each frontend, so you would need more than the one cable mentioned 
above. If the frontend is by the screen, you have no need for a long cable.

-- 

Mike Perkins