[mythtv-users] Where to dedicate processing power?

[Jim Minihane]

The front ends would indeed be tunerless. Any special reason to put the
MySQL, filestorage, etc on the same machine that does the capturing as well?
You just said that the encoding would have to be done by the CPU to sync
video from capture card and audio from the soundcard. Wouldn't it be better
to split up the processing duties?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-users-
> bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Steven Adeff
> Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 6:06 PM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Where to dedicate processing power?
> 
> On 3/8/06, Jim Minihane <min02jsm at minihane.tzo.com> wrote:
> > This arrangement I've suggested is more of a "proof of concept" for me.
> I
> > want to understand how the system can be "broken up". I have another
> thread
> > running asking about capturing DD5.1. One solution was an integrated
> SPDIF
> > input on the mobo. This would require 1 machine per tuner. It would
> probably
> > be the weakest machine(s) in the system. Don't worry about network.
> They'd
> > be in their own small network 10/100 or Gbit.
> > When it comes time to implement, I'd like to be able to add additional
> > tuners if I want to. The RAID will most likely be a 3Ware 9500S-12 or
> > 9550S-12 card.
> > Here's my vision (bear with me)...
> > I have a 19" enclosed telecom/RF cabinet. I'd want 4+ DirectTV boxes
> > connected 4:1, 2:1, or even 1:1 with slave backends capturing S-Video
> and
> > DD5.1. They'd be managed by the Master backend with no tuners. The
> > RAID/storage would be in the master backend. Several TVs and a projector
> in
> > the house would be connected by their frontends to the master. If I
> wanted,
> > then I could add another machine to do commercial cutting.
> > Call me nuts, but this sounds pretty good. I don't mind spending the
> money
> > for hardware if I know it will all work when I hook it up. 1, 2, and 4U
> > servers are pretty cheap on ebay.
> 
> I would still use a master backend that does the capturing and leave
> the frontends tuner-less.
> 
> To capture with DD5.1 will require a non-PVR card (ie regular tv tuner
> card) using the CPU to do video encoding to match up with a 5.1 input
> signal from your soundcard. I don't think all the DirecTV channels
> send 5.1, so what I would do is setup one or two tv and sound cards
> for 5.1 capture and a PVR500 for regular channel capture, then set up
> the 5.1 channels only on the inputs it has, so when you want to record
> those channels it has to use one of the 5.1 setup instead of the other
> two DirecTV tuners.
> 
> Get a motherboard with onboard 5.1 soundcard and get a second PCI
> soundcard. With a PVR500 and two TV cards you'll only need 4 PCI slots
> for tuning. Get a fast enough processor to handle the encoding and
> MySQL tasks.
> 
> --
> Steve
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