[mythtv-users] Time to take the next step...

[VCRAddict]

Hi, Folks!

My first post to this list...  I've been "sort'a" following along (mostly
via Gossamer Threads) for awhile now, but never quite got around to
subscribing.  Now that that has finally been tended to, I have several
items to discuss.

First and foremost, a big honkin' THANK YOU! to the MythTV developers, and
all the folks who continue to support it.  Myth is not only one of *the*
coolest pieces of software I've ever come across in my nearly 30 years of
working with computers, it is also one of the most IMPORTANT pieces of
software currently on the planet.  Its very existence (let alone how well
it works) stands as irrefutable testimony how utterly pathetic and
transparent the lies of the MPAA and the Cable-TV industry really are.  OK,
enough of the soap box.

Now, a little background...

I built my first MythTV box about 7-8 months ago.  It is a relatively
simple stand-alone FE/BE system based on a mildly "hot-rodded" Dell GX240
(P4 @ ~1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD, two PVR-150s and an MSI FX5200 AGP video
card) in their "Small Desktop" case (chosen in large part because this case
will fit nicely into the shelving with all the other components -- amps,
preamps, tuners, CD/DVD players, VCRs etc. -- in my Living Room
entertainment center).  After a few false starts. I got it up and running
fairly easily, thanks mostly to MythBuntu's more-or-less idiot-proof
installation routine; and it has been chugging along without major incident
ever since (it was originally intended mostly as a "proof of concept"
effort; but it's surprising how quickly we have already become more-or-less
dependant on it).  While there are still a few nagging issues (more on
these later), overall performance has been OK (occasionally, it noticeably
"struggles" to keep up the pace when multiple jobs are happening at once --
such as recording/comflagging a couple of programs while watching a
previously-made recording -- but this is both rare enough and mild enough
to not be a deal-breaker).

Until recently, this was strictly an NTSC-based affair, with output from
the video card's S-Video port feeding an old Toshiba 32-inch CRT-based TV.
But one day, I came home from a few days at my shore house to find that the
Toshiba did not want to power up -- just continuous odd "motor-boating"
sounds out of the speakers, as the power supply apparently tried to kick
in, then nothing.  Two or three more attempts, and it finally powered-up --
WHEW!  At that point, we started leaving it on 24/7, just to be safe; and
the problem did not recur.  But the handwriting was on the wall, and I now
had a *really* good excuse to go spend money with the full approval of the
Spousal Unit; so I semi-immediately went out and purchased a Sharp
LC-37D64U (1080p, lots of inputs/outputs, decent picture quality, and
overall width *just* under 36 inches -- which was a critical dimension for
reasons not relevant here).  This is now driven off that same video card's
DVI port via a DVI/HDMI adapter and a long-ish HDMI cable; and after
resetting the MythTV front-end to deal with the high-res/wide-screen
display format (which went far more smoothly than I'd feared), all is again
right with the world.  Except...

Now that I've gotten a "taste" of HDTV (via the TV's built-in ATSC tuner),
I want to make that my default recording format in MythTV.  And given that
I am (mostly by choice) limited to a terrestrial antenna for my TV signals,
I have to do it by February 17th.  Which brings me to the crux of this
(already too long -- sorry) missive.

Based on my preliminary research, I don't think it is practical or
desirable to attempt upgrading the existing FE/BE system to handle ATSC
recording.  Given the smallish case, it is absolutely limited to one HDD
and two tuner cards; and I don't want to ditch the PVR-150s just yet, as
they remain useful for those stations which are not yet broadcasting a
usable-here DTV signal (the local channel assignments are due to become
MUCH more compatible with my crappy rooftop antenna once the so-called "DTV
Transition" deadline finally gets here; but in the meantime...), and for
dubbing from S-VHS or whatever via the S-Video input.  Besides, the "long
term" plan calls for this system to eventually migrate to the Master
Bedroom, where it must (at least for awhile) cope with an existing 27-inch
conventional (i.e., NTSC-only) TV set which is still far too new and in far
too good shape to abandon just yet.

So I'm figuring on adding a backend-only system to the mix, to be stashed
away in my basement (convenient to both my antenna feed and my main
Ethernet switch) and operated solely (or at least near-solely) via the
existing BE/FE system in the Living Room.  To that end, I have acquired
what I believe to be a suitable "donor" system:

    Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo
        nVidia nForce2 chipset; 1 AGP + 5 PCI slots, 
        on-board Gigabit Ethernet, 6-channel audio & SPDIF headers, etc.
    AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167 GHz actual clock rate)
    1GB DDR RAM
    Enermax EG475P-VE PSU
    Generic "Mid-tower" case which happens to have about 7 internal drive bays
    80GB EIDE HDD

The general plan is to add at least four ***BIG*** drives in a RAID-5
arrangement, plus as many ATSC tuners as I can manage to stuff in the box
(while I can get by "for now" with two ATSC tuners, I'm certain that in the
long run I's want _at_least_ three or four).  I don't really care about
NTSC tuners, as I already have that covered with the existing FE/BE system
(and an assortment of pre-existing VCRs & DVD recorders to take up the
slack, at least until February -- did I mention that we habitually
time-shift *everything*?).  As a side note, the existing 80GB EIDE drive
will probably be cannibalized for future use in an unrelated desktop
system, as I have several 10-30GB models in my "spares" pile(s), any of
which will easily suffice for the boot/OS/apps drive.

But I could use some guidance on several of the specific details of that
"general plan"...

First, regarding the drives...  I'm currently assuming 1.0TB SATA models
(probably either the Samsung HD103UJ or the Western Digital WD10EACS; the
former are faster, but the latter might be easier on the power supply).
I'm tempted by the 1.5TB Seagates, but too many folks seem to be having big
problems with those.  I'd like to use a true hardware-RAID card on general
principles; but the only suitable one I've thus far found (the 3ware
9500S-4LP) is well over $300 -- a not-insignificant line item on the
budget.  OTOH, I've heard lots of good things about Linux's implementation
of software-RAID; and I *think* this system has enough raw hardware
horsepower to cope with that (particularly considering its Back-End-Only
role).  So perhaps just some ultra-cheap SATA card (such as the Masscool
XWT-RC040; under $20 at NewEgg) will be adequate -- *IF* it will properly
support 1TB+ drives (the Masscool seems to have some issues on that front).

Any other suggestions for SATA cards?  BTW...  The motherboard has two
built-in SATA ports (based on the Silicon Image 3112A chip); but
apparently, I'd still need to burn a PCI slot for a "port expander" card in
order to run 4+ SATA drives.  So therefore, I might as well use a four (or
more) port add-in SATA controller for the RAID array, leaving the on-board
SATA ports free to support other devices (such as the boot drive or a
DVD-R/W drive) in the future, right?  Or is there such a thing as an
"in-line" SATA port expander (i.e., one that is effectively implemented as
a part of the cabling system)?  Over the years, I've mostly used SCSI for
"serious" storage applications, and everything from ST-506 to EIDE for
run-of-the-mill desktop systems; so I'm a little out of my depth with SATA.
 Hence, any/all pointers will be appreciated.

The other big "unknown" is the tuners.  As mentioned above, we are
compulsive time-shifters; it is not at all unusual for us to be recording
(in one way or another -- at one point I had five VCRs in use here, plus
three more at the shore house) three or four programs simultaneously.  So I
want to maximize the number of tuners, vis-a-vis the available PCI slots.
I've looked around for suitable "dual-tuner" cards (i.e., the ATSC
equivalent of the old Hauppage PVR-500), but to no avail.  Does anybody
make such a thing?  If so, is it supported by Myth?  If not, why is this
rather obvious market niche being overlooked?

One possible solution to this is the SiliconDust HDHomeRun.  But at least
as I understand it, this would add several additional layers of complexity
to the project:  If I have, say, two or three "conventional" ATSC tuner
cards in the system *plus* one or more HDHomeRun boxes hung off the
network, having the MythTV system decide which one to use for any given
recording becomes more complex.  If I were to forego internal tuner cards
entirely, I'd need _at_least_ two (preferably three) HDHomeRun boxes.  This
leads to the question of how does Myth keep them sorted out?

And either way (i.e., all HDHomeRuns, or a mix of HDHomeRun & PCI tuner
cards), given that the HDHomeRun(s) would be on "equal footing" on the LAN
with both the existing FE/BE system and the new BE-only system, I'm not
certain how I could force the stuff coming from the HDHomeRun(s) to be
stored *only* on the new BE-only system, where there will (presumably) be
adequate room for it (high-def recordings would quickly swamp that little
120GB drive in the existing FE/BE system).

Those are the major questions weighing on my mind at the moment; but before
closing, let me also mention those "few nagging issues" which remain on the
FE/BE system...

1. - I have not been able to get MythArchive to work.  I have it loaded and
enabled, and by navigating the various menus, I CAN find (at least some of
-- it's been awhile since I last tried this, so allow for fuzzy
recollection) my recordings files.  But once I've selected a particular
program that I want to dump to DVD, it seems to just hang.  At one point I
found a MythWiki article which seemed to partially address this problem
<http://tinyurl.com/65qvfo>; but I have been unable to confirm that this is
indeed the problem, or troubleshoot it further, because...

2. - Since the system was put into "production" use, I no longer have a
"real" keyboard or monitor permanently connected to the system (I do have a
USB-based wireless keyboard that has proven especially handy for routine
maintenance chores, like running Synaptic; but this has not proven adequate
for *this* purpose).  I have also not (as yet) succeeded in logging into
the system from a remote terminal (such as a terminal session on one of my
Linux-based desktop systems, or using PuTTY from a WinBox.  This would seem
to be a prerequisite for examining/modifying file/directory permissions, as
suggested by the above-noted reference.

3. - I'm currently using the A415-HPG-A remote control provided with one of
my PVR-150 cards.  After much futzing around with the various (conflicting)
config files that I found recommended for the Hauppage remotes, I achieved
partial success -- the main navigational controls (Play, Pause, Skip
Forward/Back, the four-way arrows & "OK" button, etc.) work -- but many of
the more "minor" controls (such as the source selectors, or the four
colored buttons at the bottom) do nothing, despite the fact that I can
think of several things that would be worth doing.  I am aware that these
functions are, to at least some degree, customizable; but after the hassle
I had getting it working even this well, I was/am a bit gun shy about
potentially violating the old "If it ain't broke..." rule.  Can someone
give me (or point me to) a step-by-step "cookbook" approach to setting up
the rest of these buttons?

4. - On a somewhat related note:  Am I correct in assuming that as long as
the existing FE/BE box remains the only Front-End in the system, this same
remote control setup can be used to direct the new Back-End box (at least
to the degree that it will be necessary to do so, such as to schedule
recordings & such), and the Front-End will then relay the requisite
commands to the (secondary) Back-End over the net?

I'm sure there are other things to deal with (or at least will be, after I
get further into this project); but this should be more than enough for
now.  Thanks to all for any help offered.