[olug] Mythtv

[Jon H. Larsen]

On Wed, 1 Sep 2004, John Dickson wrote:

> Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 11:18:38 -0500
> From: John Dickson <jman at neonramp.com>
> Reply-To: Omaha Linux User Group <olug at olug.org>
> To: olug at olug.org
> Subject: [olug] Mythtv
> 
> I want to put together a Mythtv type box that will record multiple channels connected to a network transferring files using Gigabit. Oh, and I would like to be reasonably sure that it could run realatively unattended and stable for a month. I am looking for some assistance.
> 
> Please contact meoffline at jmanjohn61 at hotmail.com
> 
> John

John,

The MythTV documentation is one of the best HOWTO documents out there.  
Read through the document a couple times to see how the system goes 
together.  It should help you get an idea of what is involved.

Do you wish to record multiple channels concurrently?  You can probably 
get two or three PVR-250 cards on a motherboard with a good processor, 
but I'm not all too familar with the ivtv driver yet, so I'm not sure.  A 
quick search of the MythTV mailing list can help you yield an answer.
You'll need a good chunk of disk space if recording with PVR-250 cards, I 
think about 2 Gig per hour at DVD resolution (720x480) if I'm not 
mistaken.

If you are pulling On Air(VHF/UHF) or Cable TV, multiple inputs will be 
okay.  If you are pulling in Digital cable or Digital Sattelite, you will 
need a converter box/receiver for each capture card installed and a means 
to control each converter/receiver independantly via lirc.

For network transfer, Are you referring to using a MythTV Frontend over 
Gigabit, or transferring the recording and viewing it somewhere else using 
MPlayer?  You can stream to a MythTV frontend rather well with switched 
100 base-t.

Will you have Web access to the box?  You should be able to do scheduling 
with it.  

The backend box can run without X in a corner, silently recording.  
A good UPS (APC 725 or 1000 class) will help maintain your uptime.


Jon

-- 
Jon H. Larsen  - email: relayer (at) levania (dot) org
Omaha Linux Users Group - http://www.olug.org/
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