[Gllug] Myth TV setup

[John Winters]

On Fri, 2006-01-13 at 10:31 +0000, M.Blackmore wrote:
[snip]
> How have you arranged the topography of the system? The server I take it
> is remote and you ssh into it or remote x windows it to something local
> where you are sitting? (Never done remote x windows sessions).

Yes, I just added a TV card into my server.  I will shortly be adding a
second one so I can get two programs at once.

> What performance level is required? I've a 450mhz, a 700mhz somewhere in
> the loft, and an 800mhz box, and might have enough ram to boost one of
> those up to 512mb. Cards for big disks can simply be added if a PCI
> slotted SATA card gives the performance required with a bit disk.

The performance needed depended on the type of card which you're using.

If you're recording conventional terrestrial analogue signals then
there's quite a bit of work to be done in the decoding.  This can be
done either by the card or by your computer.  The more expensive cards
have processing power on board and so don't need such a powerful
computer.  I don't have any experience with analogue cards but you'll
find information on the MythTV website.

If you're recording DVB-T (Freeview) then there's very little work to be
done.  The broadcast data is just a digital video stream so all the card
needs to do is strip it out and let the computer save it.  It's rather
like having an extra 2 Mbps network card - albeit one that runs rather
hotter than a normal NIC because of the RF bits.  On my previous system
(a 1GHz Nehemiah) I saw a 1% load when recording.  My current server is
a 1.8GHz Athlon and the load is undetectable.

You can also get DVB-S cards for recording satellite transmissions, but
I have no experience with them.

> 
> Or should we lash out on some lower energy cost SATA cards?

Saving 2 Mb/s to disk is within the capabilities of just about anything
I think.

> 
> How does one get the signal into the TV cards in the server?

The card has a conventional aerial socket on the back.  Possibly other
inputs as well.

> How do you get it to the sitting room or wherever you watch it?

Cat5.

>  Is there
> another computer next to the TV display? 

Yes.  MythTV is intrinsically networkable.  Any computer on the network
with a fast enough video card (and that's practically everything) can be
used to watch live TV or recordings.

> How do you control it from where the entertainment is actually being
> watched?

On screen menus.  It can also be controlled using a web browser.

> Can stuff be spooled off to more than one TV (say a kids clash over
> something)?

Yes, no problem.  You can however only take one program off-air (for
either recording or immediate watching) per TV card at any given time.
MythTV does a very good job of scheduling recordings intelligently.  If
you ask to record two things at the same time it will check the listings
to see whether one of them is on at a different time and if it is then
it will re-schedule that one.  You can also assign priorities to tell it
what to go for in the event of an un-fixable clash.  Thus my children
who want to record every single episode of Friends (1 TB array anyone)
have a suitable record set up, but at a low priority.  In a clash,
Friends loses out to whatever else is wanted.

I'm planning to put a second card in the box this weekend so that we can
watch and record simultaneously, or have two people watching on
different computers, or record two things simultaneously.  I understand
that there are Pip (Picture in Picture) capabilities in MythTV but I
haven't found them yet.

HTH
John

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