[mythtv-users] HD Playback

[Steven Adeff]

On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:03 PM, MrVining
<myth-user-discussion at mrvining.com> wrote:
> On Feb 19, 2009, at 7:39 PM, Krzysztof Adamski wrote:
>> On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 19:07 -0600, MrVining wrote:
>>> This HD Video playback thing still has me stumped.  It seems there is
>>> soo many different options and settings.  I read a lot about someone
>>> did this or that and now CPU load is at 15% or what ever.  Anyway I
>>> have decided I'm going about this the wrong way, instead of asking
>>> for tips on what will make my hardware run okay, I'll just ask what's
>>> the best?
>>>
>>> I have my backend all set up, or on it's way (4TB RAID5 &
>>> 3xHDHomeRun, multi Gigabit Network Cards).
>>>
>>> Now I'm building the front ends and this is mission critical for me,
>>> if the wife doesn't have TV, I don't get to the office...  LOL but
>>> kinda true, don't get me wrong "Apples to Apples" and "Back-seat
>>> Drawing" are fun, but I need my HTTP/WoW.  We have a big screen 16:9
>>> HD TV with a free HDMI input, and a THX certified Yamaha receiver
>>> (only using 5.1 atm, hope to change to 7.1 after we move in a year or
>>> so).  She records mostly 1080i programs.
>>>
>>> There seems to be lot's of playback options so what one yields the
>>> highest quality picture?
>>>
>>> What hardware is needed to drive that decompression (zero dropped
>>> frames)?
>>>
>>> If you had 2-3k to drop on a front end for a client what would
>>> components would you use?
>>>
>>>
>>> No need to respond negatively, if you're not going to have fun with
>>> it don't bother to respond.  Basically if you won the lottery what
>>> would your front end be made up of, and what settings would you shoot
>>> for?
>>
>> If cost is no object, one thing that I would do for the frontend is to
>> build a powerful machine that sits in a basement (or someplace far away
>> from the TV) and use a HDMI extenders (like
>> http://www.audioauthority.com/product_details/1391A/HDMI/5/2).
>> This way no noise and no headaches about building a nice looking and
>> quiet frontend (Audio and remote have to be extended too).
>>
>> K
>>
>>
> OOO those are cool.  Our last house I put all the TiVos down stairs and used
> some 50' HDMI cables I got from a place called ruby electronics I think.
>  Anyway they worked pretty good, the only issue I ever had was that one of
> the HDMI ports got old / loose and I had to sort of prop up the cable to
> make sure all the contacts made contact.
>
> Anyone else have any dream system ideas?

I don't know if I'm so worried about system noise since I rather like
having the local DVD drive and VFD displays. But I would go with
something like this for a backend:

NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case - $289.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021
areca ARC-1260 PCI-Express x8 SATA II Controller Card - $749.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151005
SUPERMICRO MBD-PDSME+-O LGA 775 Intel 3010 ATX Server Motherboard - $249.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182105
Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual
Channel Kit - $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134193
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W
Dual-Core Processor - $164.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
throw in a bunch of 1TB hard drives, a couple HD-PVRs and a HDHomeRun or two.

Then build some cheap frontends with 9300 or 9400IGP's to take
advantage of VDPAU.

-- 
Steve
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/User:Steveadeff
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