[mythtv-users] Output to h.264

[Brian Wood]

On Thursday, August 05, 2010 11:00:36 am mike at grounded.net wrote:
> > How do you want to output to the network? Export as a UPnP server? Do you
> > want to connect to the Myth frontend via a
> > remote desktop protocol?
> 
> Actually, yes, this also. I would like to be able to view the video from
> any PC and any set top box on the lan. 

AFAIK none of the remote desktop protocols allow for viewing video in real time, they are just not fast enough, especially 
for HD. You could use VNC if you just want to access the machine's desktop, but video playback is not VNC's (or anything 
similar's) forte.

It sounds like you want to use UPnP, with a client on the PCs, using the built-in server on the Myth backend.

But you would be far better off running a Myth frontend on the PCs, you get features like commercial skipping which a basic 
UPnP client can't do, recording scheduling and a lot more.

> 
> > I would look into that, there is no reason a modern Linux distro
> >shouldn't install on reasonably common hardware, can you
> > tell what the problem seems to be?
> 
> I've tried mythbuntu and mythdora and neither one installs. There are no
> errors, they simply do not install. After a while, the cdrom goes silent
> and it's over. Knoppmyth however, does install fully and I do end up with
> a working system. The first problem I've been trying to solve is not
> getting any video out of the s-video port of the nvidia 5200 card I had
> handy to build this system with.

Obviously the S-Video port will not do HD of any sort.

Have you tried a standard Ubuntu install? Have you tried any of the live CDs?

For Mythdora, you might try posting to their forums, they are good at support, especially if an install just fails. This 
is for Mythdora-specific problems, general ones are best posted here, as you have done.


> 
> > Perhaps some details of your system, and any error messages you get when
> > you try to install?
> 
> It should be a pretty standard system. I just used old desktop hardware I
> had laying around. I believe it is a via chipset motherboard, 2.8Ghz, 1GB
> of memory. I have the nvidia fx5200 card I think it is for display.
> I have a WINTV-NOVA-HD-S2 DVB-S2 Tuner Card which I'd like to try as a
> replacement to a Traxis FTA receiver I'm playing with. Finally, I have an
> Hauppauge HVR-1600 WinTV card for local TV along with cameras and other
> things I have modulated on my local coax.
> 
> Not sure what else I should add as information.

Are you building a combo backend/frontend? The 5200 card would require software decoding, which might be a problem for 
h264 HD with that CPU, if you want to use that machine as a frontend, I'd consider a VDPAU-capable video card. 

Depending on the age of your mobo, you may have problems with the PCI bus, early VIA chipsets were notorious for that.