[mythtv-users] New system configuration

[Fred Squires]

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 9:45 AM, Kaare Rasmussen <kaare at jasonic.dk> wrote:
>> It's a DVR like any other, just an uncommonly flexible one. If you buy
>> a Tivo, you can record from 2 different channels at once, because it
>> has 2 tuners. MythTV is the same, except you have the option of adding
>> as many tuners as you want! (I used one tuner for a long time, but
>> never for LiveTV, I just used the tuners in the TV's for that. Now
>> I've got 2 tuners, and thus far, I've only had one occasion where I've
>> wished I had 3)
>
> Ah, now I start to understand (I think). One recorder is enough, as you say.
> What I'm thinking about is that the tuner is connected to the server, and that
> the server distributes the live signal from any channel to the frontend that
> wants it. Don't know if that's
>
> a) Possible
> b) Impossible
> c) Not a task for a server
> d) Handled by another application than MythTV
> e) ...

MythTV's live TV doesn't really work this way. Everything is a
recording to MythTV (not counting mythvideo or mythmusic) even live
TV. If a frontend starts watching live TV the backend will start a new
recording in the livetv group and the frontend will display the
current recording. When you change the channel or the current show
ends and a new show starts the backend ends the current recording and
starts another. On the frontend live tv just keeps playing like it
normally would and the viewer doesn't realize they're watching a
different recording.
They problem for you is that, although another frontend can watch
these live recordings they can't watch them seemlessly like the
frontend that started livetv. They can only watch them by going to the
recordings menu and selecting a recording and when that recording ends
such as when the channel was changed or when the program ends they
will be returned to the menu.
What this means is if you want to watch live tv from multiple rooms
with mythtv you'll have to have multiple tuners.