[mythtv-users] MythTV - Video Distribution Solution?

[John Drescher]

> My question is, how many frontend devices can a MythTV server support
> concurrently? At the high school, there would be about 45 classrooms with
> front end units. (Realistically, they all wouldn't be using them at the
> same time.)
>
I doubt 45 was ever tested but some users on this thread have 5 or
more frontends.

>
> What would you say the specs of a server would need to be to support at
> least 10 frontends at the same time? The front end devices and the server
> would be on their own segment of a 1-Gig backbone network so bandwidth
> shouldn't be an issue.
>
> We do understand that only one teacher would be able to change the channel
> for live TV at a time (or satellite).
No, you should be able to have as many live TV feeds as tuners you can
smack into backend devices.

> What would happen if a second user
> tried to change the channel when another person is already controlling the
> source? Can multiple people at least see, but not control, cable through
> the Front End utility?
Not exactly sure. I believe the first livetv session will block that
tuner from other frontends from directly seeing it but the more livetv
sessions would be able to see other available tuners. Also if more
frontends wanted to watch the what an other frontend is watching this
should show up in the recorded programs listing.
>
> Last, but not least, I see that MythTv supports adding multiple recording
> servers. Can we add a second recording server (or server with different
> sources) and integrate it with the overall program guide that the frontend
> use, or would the frontend machines have to be changed to point to a
> second server to see the programming available on it?

No they will see the other server as additional tuners.

John