[mythtv-users] Any FE to Many PCs - LAN Content Simulcasts with VLC Multicasting

[Tortise]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Raymond Wagner" <raymond at wagnerrp.com>
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2009 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Any FE to Many PCs - LAN Content Simulcasts with VLC Multicasting


______________________________________________

Thanks Raymond
1) I'm looking for 720p where there is a 720p display, the 3 720p screens I have all only take component in to display it. 
Certainly I could run it all in SD, however the SD vs HD quality on the HD screens is enough to make me want to use HD on them. The 
existing modulator only takes composite inputs, if I could get synchronised component and composite out then I'd probably have run 
with that.  NVIDIA's connectors are one or the other but not both.  One option is to take a composite out and 720p VGA out and 
convert this to component, I was concerned about the quality that would be achieved doing it this way, and I'd still get only two 
outputs to modulate.  (Unless adding more modulators)

2) I hadn't seen the ZvBoxes before, they look like OK kit, my HDTV's only have component HD input so not good in my case.  My World 
is PAL, however with 720p I am not sure that matters.  To make that work I'd need to import a number of the units and some (non 
HDCP) QAM256 STB's, which I assume from what you've said are available in the US, probably with 110V instead of our New Zealand 230V 
standard.  Probably could be made to work with lots of investment.

3) Some interesting ideas here.
I was aware of the bluetooth option, that doesn't seem such a good option for me as I don't want one room to shut down while another 
fires up, and vice versa.  Its a good idea however I can see lots of work getting this to work.

>"A simpler option would be to bring up a popup when you start livetv listing current sessions, and allow you to 'commandeer' an 
>existing session."
and
>"add an option on the first frontend to 'migrate to...', which logs into the telnet socket of the second frontend, and tells it to 
>start playing whatever content you are currently using."

These are an interesting related ideas, I guess you were meaning in a unicast sense here.  If the mythtv BE could be made to 
multicast that would be better, so that a second (and nth) FE can effectively simultaneously pull the same content, that would work 
well for me, (and have the added benefit of avoiding VLC, - allowing use of VDPAU on all FE.)

(I've avoided the remote control issues, thinking I'd like to keep it simple (!) and walk before I run, however my expectation was 
the stream initiator would retain control, while remote control may well be possible from anywhere using telnet.)

I think this is a good direction to explore some more.  I am not sure what's required to make a mythtv backend serve each stream as 
identified (stepped) multicast streams, nor am I sure how to make a FE connect into a specified multicast stream however that would 
be really cool.