[mythtv-users] mythtv and a central wiring closet

Brian Guilfoos mythtv at guilfoos.com
Thu Jan 18 12:43:10 UTC 2007


Seth Daniel wrote:
> I'd like to be
> able to use the MythTV feed in any room that has a video (coax) jack.
> What are people using in this arrangement?  Is this even an optimal
> arrangement?

I hooked my MythTV box into a "legacy" system.  I also have a two-tuner
Series 1 DirecTV with TiVo box, and a single D10 DirecTV receiver, and
when I moved to my current condo I was faced with the prospect of buying
"stackers" (read: very expensive) to get two sat signals to whatever
location I wanted the TiVo.  Instead, I got a good quality (cable band)
dual channel modulator, and some coax IR "extenders", and basically set
my system up so I could watch the TiVo or the D10 in any location in the
house that had coax by locating all the equipment in a "wiring closet",
like you did.  Tune to channel 65, and that's the TiVo.  68, and that
(was) the D10 box.  (I was lucky that, despite only one drop per room,
they were all "home run" to a corner of the basement.)

When I built my MythTV setup, I just pulled the D10 from the
distribution system (and put it in the MythTV setup), and plugged the
MythTV frontend in it's place.  So now, I can watch either the MythTV
box or the TiVo at any coax drop in the house.

This has it's advantages, and is necessary if I want to make the TiVo
usable at multiple locations, but I feel the ideal solution would be
diskless network bootable frontends at the TV locations.  Sharper image,
the ability to support HDTV, zero chance of a conflict where two
locations both want the MythTV box at the same time (that's easily
manageable in my household, but may not be when we have kids).  I'll
still probably keep at least one frontend in this "legacy" distribution
network after we have our house built, and replace the IR remote with an
RF remote (if possible), just for the flexibility of getting MythTV at
any coax drop (rather than requiring a network drop *and* moving a small
computer along with a small TV).

Since I have lifetime service on the TiVo, I suspect my little "private
cable lineup" won't be going away any time soon, unless the TiVo dies or
for some unforeseeable reason I decide to retire the TiVo.  (The
scheduler bug this past month almost did it.  Nearly convinced my
slow-to-accept-change wife into switching over to the MythTV box, which
I use almost exclusively now.  TiVo is plug-and-play and intuitive, but
MythTV is vastly superior in features and nearly as easy to use, once
it's configured properly.)


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