[mythtv-users] Some Quick Questions about MythTV

[Scot L. Harris]

On Tue, 2005-10-25 at 15:18, Joshua Lewis wrote:
> I am seriously considering the MythTV as an alternative to having 5
> satellite receivers and DVD players and computers and stuff in my house. I
> want desperately to consolidate my house.
> 
> I questions is three fold.
> 
> One is the MythTV documentation on PDF somewhere or available to download
> so I can read it on my way home on the train?
> 
> Two: Can I even do what I am trying to do? The Windows XP Media Center
> allows you to hook up an X-Box or media extender to TV's so you can watch
> your Prerecorded information from a TV not directly hooked to the Media
> Center PC. That is what I want to do with MythTV. Although it looks like
> MythTV can record my DVD's to disk drive where I can't get a confirmed yes
> on that ability for Windows MCPC.
> 

Have read that many people utilize X-Box systems as frontend systems. 
These connect to the backend system to pull recordings.  Not sure if
there are any limitations on such an X-Box frontend.  

I've been looking at putting together a diskless frontend system using
small form factor motherboard but have not spent enough time to pick out
the right mother board yet.

> I would like to load all my families DVD's (If they are all loaded the way
> I want then I don't have to keep baying new DVD's when my kids scratch
> them. I got to get a new Harry Potter this weekend), MP3's and hook up
> like 5 TV tuners to the system so everyone can watch and record TV from
> there own room. Then I can watch Sci-Fi and Westwing until I am blue in
> the face in my bedroom while my wife watches Desperate House Wives and
> America's Next top Model downstairs (ok those two shows have enough
> hotties that I don't mind so much) but you get the picture. I got Barney
> in one room and GI Joe in another and so on and so fourth.
> 

You can do that, just build a big server with lots of disk drives and
encoder cards and deploy diskless front ends to each TV.  Have not
played around much with the DVD options in mythtv.  But it appears that
it can be done.  You will want to make sure the frontends you use
support the right protocols so xine can be used on your TVs.  I
understand that allows you to get the full menus from the DVDs.  Others
should have better comments on this feature.

> Three: I plan to get a truly beefy system to do all of this. I am looking
> into a SARA raid array to prevent data loss and if possible dual core
> system (do they make duel CPU Dual Core motherboards) I want to avoid any
> kind of Encoding in the main processors. So do I need a certain TV Tuner
> to do everything in the tuner and such? Let's pretend money is no object
> (unfortunately it is so this will be an ongoing project) how would you
> design your system. I know a lot of these questions can be answered by the
> documentation but I only have time to read it offline and have not been
> able to find a way to print or view it offline.

The big decision is going to be based around the signal input.  If you
just want/need the analog channels off most cable services (all I use)
it is fairly easy.  Get a big tower system with lots of drives and
plenty of cooling, install several PVR-500's (two tuners per card),
setup as many diskless front end systems as you need.  The PVR-500's are
not that expensive.

I have found that watching live tv is not done much anymore.  I setup
recording rules to capture all the shows I am interested in.  Then you
can watch them when ever you want.

If you are using PVR-500 tuners you won't require that much CPU.  The
CPU will mostly be needed for commercial flagging jobs.  

Check out Jarod's guide for building the system.  It will help a lot.