[mythtv-users] How hard is it to build an HD MythTV?

[William Munson]

stefan_jones at comcast.net wrote:
> Related question:
>
> If you have a frontend / backend system, with a front end servicing a HD, you are obviously going to need a relatively stout processor in the front end. Or a middling processor and card with good MPEG2 offload capabilities. 
>
> But what about the back end? It will be doing HD capture, which I understand isn't all that CPU intensive. But where does the commercial flagging / transcoding get done?
>
> This is relevant to me because I'm trying to decide whether to go for a new combined system, or to retire my current box to be back end only, and make a new HD-capable frontend in a trim little box.
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>   

The backend processor can be pretty much anything recent. Pentium 4 is 
plenty good enough. For me, the bottleneck is hard drive. With lots of 
clients, I used to get stuttering when using old slow pata drives. Since 
upgrading to fast sata drives that issue has gone away. If you have lots 
of remote frontends, invest in gigabit ethernet you will need the bandwidth.