[mythtv-users] Mult-system design

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Oct 26, 2006, at 1:44 PM, Rich West wrote:

> Stupid question here, but, is it possible to view live tv with
> frontend-only systems when the required (in this case, required  
> because
> it is all digital content) set-top-box is sitting in a closet attached
> to the main backend server?
>
> -Rich

Yes. You need to get over the idea that a tuner needs to be near your  
TV in order to use it. One of the beautiful things about mythtv is  
that you can use tuners that are anywhere on your network as long as  
mythbackend is running on the machine. No one tuner is allocated to a  
single viewing point any more. What really happens when you watch  
"Live TV" is that the backend starts capturing video and your  
frontend plays back the capture - the same way as if it was recorded  
months ago except it's recorded a few seconds ago instead.