[mythtv-users] Big Myth system (2-3 satellite receivers + capture devices, 5 tvs, Samsung DLNA) ?

Linuxguy123 linuxguy123 at gmail.com
Sat Jul 30 00:30:45 UTC 2011


On Thu, 2011-07-28 at 08:47 -0500, Kevin Kuphal wrote:


> The server requirements are meager as I understand it because the
> HD-PVR is doing the heavy lifting of encoding the data.  The system
> with your HD-PVRs attached is your backend server.

So running multiple HD-PVRs (2,3 or even 4) is going to be easy for a
basic machine ?

>   It will run mythbackend, mythcommflag, and the SQL server and hold
> all your media content.  I recommend a physical OS drive, a DB drive
> (for MySQL),and then whatever storage you want for your recordings. 

OK.  Easy for me to set up like that.

> Attached to each TV you would connect another PC with mythfrontend
> running on it.  I expect your DLNA experience will be subpar and while
> you may be able to use it for occasional viewing, most people find the
> best experience using a PC running mythfrontend.  You want this
> machine to either have onboard nvidia or an nvidia graphics card
> capable of VDPAU.  Look at this page and choose a card or motherboard
> with Feature Set C for the best
> results: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU (if I'm reading it right).
> 
> 
> Essentially then, your Samsungs will be monitors for the output of the
> video card (VGA, DVI, or HDMI depending on your capabilities) in those
> PCs and as such require no transcoding.  The nvidia card will handle
> the hardware acceleration of the playback so again, the CPU
> requirements on the frontend PCs are meager and can even be done
> integrated motherboards with the right chipsets (ION2, etc).  Combine
> that with an SSD and you can get a near silent machine to attach to
> your TV giving a very good living room experience.

I'll look into and test the DLNA exerience.   Thanks for the heads up.

> All that being said, expect to pay for this functionality.  MythTV
> isn't a low budget alternative to a DVR 

I've been pricing hardware, so I realize that.  However, I'm frustrated
with the limitations of the satellite PVRs and my home won't work with
any system other than a Myth setup.  

Aside: my home is wired funny.   Most rooms have a single coax from the
utility room to the TV locations, supposedly for cable.   Almost all the
TV locations also have a Cat5 feed from the utility room.   

My satellite system requires 2 coax feeds from the LNB to the receiver
in order to view HD content.  I'd have to rewire the entire house to get
2 coax feeds to everyplace we want a TV.  

However, we don't have to do any rewiring if we can send content on the
network.  Thus I've got a choice of rewiring the house OR running Myth.
And I've looked at Myth in the past and been hankering to set it up.
Now I have a great excuse.

> but what you pay for the equipment comes back to you in the
> flexibility and functionality you get.  A backend/multi-frontend setup
> will let you watch any content on any TV and Live viewing up to the
> number of tuners (HD-PVR) you have in the system that are idle (not
> recording another show).  The scheduling is top notch and it is a full
> fledged media server on top of it for all your content.

> Hope that helps.

It did.  Thanks for starting the replies !





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