[mythtv-users] Trying to understand the architechture

Rob Hillis rob at hillis.dyndns.org
Fri Jun 24 11:55:28 UTC 2005


Brett Stevens wrote:

>I was under the understanding that it is distributed and that I could have a
>nuber of backend servers and any number of clients.
>  
>
Yep.

>What Id like to do is setup 5 settop boxes running mythtv frontend and at
>least one server with 2 tuer/capture cards.
>  
>
Easily done.

>However there could be 5 different people watching 5 different programs
>either live or timestepped or movies etc. 
>In this case do the clients need a capture card or do I just run 5 capture
>cards in the server. If so dosent I/O become a bit of a problem disk
>capacity is not an issue nither is network bandwidth. Im just trying to get
>a full picture of the system so I can design one as best as possible.
>  
>
The frontends do not require a capture card at all if you want.  Capture 
cards _can_ be spread across the network, but my experience is that it's 
not as reliable as putting the lot into one machine.  The backend would 
need to have enough capture cards to cope with the number of channels 
you expect to be either recording or watching live at once.  For example 
- if you have 2 shows recording with someone else watching another 
channel at the same time, you would need 3 capture cards - even if 
someone else is watching a pre-recorded program.

>My thoughts on the capture cards in each client was prompted, firstly from
>the info on the web site and secondly if the diskless clients are using nfs
>to the server wouldnt this improve preformance????
>  
>
Capture cards don't need to be in the clients - I have only one capture 
card in my primary backend (which is also the frontend on the main TV) 
and another non-dedicated frontend dual-booting from my main computer.  
My computer does not have a capture card in it, but will watch live TV 
or pre-recorded programs without a problem.



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