[mythtv-users] ANN: PlugMyth, a new MythTV distribution for Plug computers

Simon Hobson linux at thehobsons.co.uk
Wed Aug 25 15:46:43 UTC 2010


Brian J. Murrell wrote:

>On Tue, 2010-08-24 at 22:39 -0600, Tyler T wrote:
>>
>  > http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/plugmyth/
>
>The wiki page says:
>
>         Traditional PCs consume a lot of power. A Plug computer with
>         2.5" hard drive draws maybe 10 watts, probably 1/10th the power
>         of many traditional PCs ...
>
>Have you added up the power consumption of all devices needed, including
>external HDDs and Tuners?  I would be interested in what that number is.
>
>Then, take that number and extrapolate it over time to get your total
>usage in 24h.
>
>Now compare that to the traditional PC that can be put to sleep (drawing
>only 5 watts, looking at my kilo-watt right now) for probably 18-20 of
>those 24 hours.  It draws about 130 watts running.
>
>FWIW, my (mostly sleeping) BE has 4 analog and 1 digital tuners
>(configured for 3 multirecs) for a total of 7 possible tuners.  Please
>be sure to account for that many tuners in your comparison.
>
>How does it compare now?

Firstly, does your master backend sleep well ? How many people are 
actually able to get that working reliably - or even try ?
I could see the attraction of PlugMyth to host the master backend, 
and perhaps record one stream from an HD HomeRun - and let any slave 
BEs stay off most of the time.
Store your recordings on a NAS (as many people do) and local storage 
becomes irrelevant. However, 2.5" HDs are quite low power - how else 
would you run one from a USB port with only 2.5W (officially) of 
power available.

You appear (to me) to be too ready to attack this project for being 
"different". Yes, it may not be as brilliant as it might first 
appear, but I can see a place for it.

-- 
Simon Hobson

Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books.


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