MythTV Setup time!

[Jarod Wilson]

On Mon, 2008-09-29 at 14:44 -0400, Rich Braun wrote:
> Kristian Erik Hermansen <kristian.hermansen-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > I'm looking for the best value Myth HDTV setup I can put together.
> > Nothing over the top, just down the middle of the road.
> 
> I too am wanting to buy such a setup.  Have been prototyping this under about
> 4 different Linux distros and 5 different hardware combinations since the 18th
> of August.  My experience has been rather miserable; I posted a message on
> this topic right before the BLU server exploded so that discussion didn't get
> started.  Be that as it may, I now have another 4 weeks of solo tinkering
> behind me.
> 
> My #1 problem:  despite all my efforts with new & old hardware alike, the only
> combination (for the frontend) that has not been prone to software crashes is
> a Core 2 Quad running OpenSUSE 11.0, using the rpm's distributed by PackMan in
> Germany.  That one runs exactly the way I want.  Every other system has had
> bootup problems or mind-numbingly frustrating device-driver problems and
> glitches.

Wow, you've got some extremely bad luck there, I've found very few
setups I couldn't get working reliably.

> > AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core
> > Processor Model HD985ZXAGHBOX - Retail ($169.00)
> > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103249
> 
> Overkill.  I bought an AMD 4850 dual processor for my frontend, cost about
> $65.  You can get the single-processor version of that, I only got the dual in
> case I could never get MythTV working on it and needed to recycle it as a
> desktop PC.

As stated earlier in the thread, "overkill" depends on intended usage,
and I'd recommend nothing less than a dual-core proc.

> > Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
> > Hard Drive - OEM ($79.99 x 4 = $319.96)
> > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218
> 
> For the backend box, I bought a half-dozen terabyte drives for about $150
> apiece.  Have heard the Seagate 1.5-terabyte units just came out.  The ones
> you're looking at are 12.5 cents a gig which is a very good price.  I'm
> leaning quickly away from WD right now because of the issues (posted last
> week) with their power-management features.  My system has a mix of Seagate,
> WD and Hitachi drives.  I'm happiest with Seagate.

I'll second that.

> > SiliconDust HDHomeRun Network-based Dual Digital HDTV Tuner Ethernet
> > Interface - Retail ($168.99)
> 
> Love it.  Nice product.  Allows me to run Ethernet instead of RG6 between my
> antenna demarc and the rest of the system.  As someone has already noted, this
> is limited to broadcast TV.

You're slightly off there. The HDHR *can* record unencrypted digital
cable as well.

> I'm not sure there's any solution for
> cable/DirecTV (or for that matter commercial BluRay) content.

Hauppauge HD PVR, for one. I just got one last week, haven't set it up
just yet.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/hd_pvr.html

> > Any suggestions on this?  Anything looking bad?  I think this is a
> > great setup, but I have been wrong before :-)
> 
> It will be too noisy and too expensive, I think.  Your backend server needs
> only a fraction of the power of the frontend.

Again, that depends on intended usage. Commericial flagging takes a
non-trivial amount of cpu, as does transcoding. Me, I like to start
commflagging while the recordings are in progress, so they're ready to
be watched w/commercials skipped w/in about 5 minutes of the program
finishing. With a combined back/front box, you'll also need some cpu for
playback. Thus my recommendation of at least a dual-core cpu for a
combined frontend/backend box: one core for playback, one for
commflag/transcode. More cores if you want to have the box doing even
more at once or simply handling more streams at once (i.e. commflagging
two recordings simultaneously).

> I suggest that you install a
> separate backend box tucked away somewhere far from your entertainment system
> (those hard drives will need cooling fans even if you run a small/low-power
> CPU) and that you look for a front-end that burns a lot less power than what
> you've proposed.

That's actually my personal preference as well. Apple's Mac Mini
continues to be the best frontend-only machine available, IMO. (I have
the 1.66GHz core duo variant thereof, runs Fedora, handles HDTV playback
beautifully, but I'm anticipating needing to upgrade the cpu a bit to
handle high-rez/high-bitrate h.264 encodings off the HD PVR).

> > I am going to get this going with
> > MythBuntu Hardy (8.04.1) [x86_64] very soon.
> 
> That's the distro I set up on Saturday.  It was/is very unstable and difficult
> to get working (had to do endless xorg.conf tweaks, figure out the sound
> control, etc).

Huh. I've heard pretty much nothing but good things about MythBuntu. But
then I don't pay any attention to the mythtv-users mailing list or irc
channel anymore... And I'm definitely interested in hearing what is
problematic in MythDora, as I'm one of the people who helps put it
together (w/a new release Real Soon Now, hopefully just after Fedora 10
is released).



-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org