[mythtv-users] simultaneous viewing

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Fri Apr 13 16:42:10 UTC 2012


On 04/13/2012 03:03 AM, Nick Rout wrote:
> I am struggling to see the use case here. Sure, I once had a house
> full of people round to watch a rugby game, more people than were
> comfortable in one room so half watched in each lounge room. Other
> than that type of situation (which was Live anyway and is easier
> outside myth)

er, probably easier inside MythTV by watching a recording in progress 
(so you have pause/rew/ffwd/... and the ability to start it when the 
guests arrive, regardless of when it starts and--if you start late or if 
you pause it any--the ability to skip over some commercials or whatever).

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/387302#387302

The only thing about "Live" playback that's not ideal in MythTV is using 
Live TV for it, rather than playing back a recording in progress.  "Live 
TV" is all about, "I have no clue what I want to watch, so I'll just 
randomly switch channels so I think I'm going to stumble on some 
treasure."  Watching a recording "live" as it records works great--and 
from as many frontends as desired.

> Sounds like a use case for a meglamaniac who wants their whole house
> watching the same thing, with said meglamaniac controlling via one
> remote control.
>
> These conversations come up regularly on this list, and I am yet to
> see a use case that really makes sense in the mythtv context.
>
> Thinking of situations where I see many screens displaying the same
> thing, I think of bars with sport or fuzzy music videos playing, which
> need to be exactly synched or it just doesn't work. Far easier to do
> with a network of HDMI cables back to an hdmi splitter, all fed from
> the same source.

Though I do agree that I wouldn't have any use for simultaneous playback 
(of either audio or video) for exactly that reason--there are 
significantly easier ways to achieve the same via routing cables to the 
right places.  And, especially with video, the video-processing 
circuitry in different displays has significantly different 
characteristics that result in widely-differing delays--sufficient, 
even, to cause echoes, etc., when trying to synchronize playback.

Mike


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